Japan's Foreign Minister offers prayer for past hurt

apan's Foreign Minister has become the nation's most senior politician to offer a prayer for former allied prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War. However, he stopped short of apologising for Japan's harsh treatment of the prisoners.

Taro Aso is one of the candidates competing to replace Junichiro Koizumi as Prime Minister in a few months' time.

As Shane McLeod reports, in making a public prayer for prisoners of war, the minister may have been trying to deal with some history of his own.