A member of Japan's cabinet paid a visit to a Tokyo shrine honoring the country's war dead, including class-A criminals, on Wednesday in a move expected to anger South Korea and other Asian neighbors.

Jin Matsubara, a chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, is the first Japanese cabinet member to visit the Yasukuni Shrine since the Democratic Party of Japan rose to power in September 2009.

The visit is expected to further escalate tensions between Seoul and Tokyo that have heightened in the wake of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's surprise visit to the country's easternmost islets of Dokdo that Japan has claimed as its territory.

The shrine has been considered a symbol of Japan's militarism, and South Korea, China and other Asian nations have protested such visits that they view as a sign Japan has not fully repented for its imperialist past.

Wednesday was the anniversary of the end of World War II, and Liberation Day in South Korea that celebrates the country's 1945 independence from Japan's harsh 1910-1945 colonial rule.

Japan's Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Yuichiro Hata is also expected to visit the shrine later Wednesday.

But the 16 other cabinet members decided against visiting the shrine. (Yonhap News)