TOKYO -- A suspected right-wing activist shot himself dead in the head in front of Japan's parliament on Wednesday in an apparent protest against Japan's warming ties with China, police said.

Sporting a navy blue suit, the man went to parliament in a taxi, got off outside the south gate and immediately shot himself at 8:15 a.m. (2215 GMT), police and a witness said.

The man, believed to be in his 60s, was confirmed dead a little over an hour later, a police spokesman said.

The suspected right-wing activist carried a letter addressed to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, discussing his diplomacy with China, the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korea and a row over a war shrine, media reports said.

He also had another letter addressed to the media, news reports said.

Fukuda, known for his close ties with China, has worked to repair relations with Beijing that have been tense in recent years.

Fukuda has refused to visit the Yasukuni shrine, seen by China as a symbol of Japan's militarist past as it enshrines 2.5 million war dead, including war criminals.

The shrine in central Tokyo is a rallying ground for Japanese conservatives. Junichiro Koizumi went to the shrine each year during his 2001-2006 premiership, angering China and South Korea.

Fukuda, who took over in September, has also toned down his predecessor Shinzo Abe's hardline campaign against North Korea.

Japan has tense ties with Pyongyang in part due to the communist regime's kidnapping of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.