TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to improve strained ties with China by staying away from a Tokyo shrine to war dead could be thwarted if cabinet members and a ruling party executive pay their respects there next week.
Often fragile Sino-Japanese relations have been badly frayed for nearly a year by a row over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, disputes over Japan's wartime history, and regional rivalries.
