Several Japanese cabinet members paid homage at a controversial shrine for war dead on Friday, 58 years after Japan's World War II surrender, in a move likely to spark anger from Japan's Asian neighbors.

Four ministers, including Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma, paid a visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of the militarist regime that led Japan into war.

The shrine is dedicated to Japan's 2.5 million war dead since 1853, including a number of convicted war criminals.

"I visited with a feeling of gratitude toward the peace that exists now and thinking that war should absolutely not be waged," said Yoshitada Konoike, minister for disaster management.

Two other cabinet members, Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei and Sadakazu Tanigaki, Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, also paid a visit on a day of pouring rain.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, known for his nationalist views and anti-China rhetoric, attended, as did a group of lawmakers.

But Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has outraged Japan's Asian neighbors with past visits to the shrine, was not present. He marked the end of the war at secular ceremonies.

Koizumi has visited Yasukuni every year since taking office in April 2001, although he has avoided August 15, an emotive date for Asian nations that suffered from Japan's wartime aggression.

He last visited Yasukuni in January.

The latest visits by Japanese politicians took place just days after China's foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, warned Japanese leaders against going to the shrine.

"Japanese leaders should definitely not visit the shrine where A-class war criminals are also enshrined. It is a universally held view of the international community," Li said on Monday during a visit to Japan.

The main reason for the controversy surrounding Yasukuni is that 14 convicted "Class A" war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, are among those enshrined there.

(China Daily August 15, 2003)