Taiwan urged Japan on Tuesday to "face history" after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made another controversial visit to a Tokyo war shrine.

"We hope that Japan will face history while trying to play an active role in promoting peace and stability in East Asia," said foreign ministry spokesman Michel Lu.

"However, since Taiwan is a free and democratic country, we respect any individual for expressing his opinions."

Koizumi apologized again for the "huge damage and suffering" Japan inflicted on Asian nations in World War II after praying at the Yasukuni shrine, which Japan's neighbors associate with its imperialist past.

Taipei's mild reaction was in sharp contrast with the outrage expressed by China and South Korea, which both summoned Japan's ambassadors to their respective countries in protest.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese indigenous lawmaker Kao-Chin Su-mei, who was barred from protesting at the shrine on Tuesday, blasted Koizumi's latest visit, saying it "defied Japan's peace constitution," her aide said.

A group of 50 Taiwanese aborigines led by Kao-Chin launched a lawsuit in Osaka last week and a series of protests in Tokyo to demand that the names of Taiwanese soldiers listed at the shrine be removed.

The shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including some infamous war criminals.

Some 28,000 Taiwanese names -about 10,000 of them indigenous Taiwanese forced to join the Japanese military -- are listed at the shrine. Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945.