Tokyo - Nearly 5,000 people were expected to gather at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan arena Friday to commemorate the country's 3.1 million war dead and the end of World War II.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were to attend the ceremony. The oldest person to participate was expected to be 94 as the generation of people who experienced the war ages.

Meanwhile, Farm Minister Seiichi Ota, Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka, and former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead.

The shrine visits by Japanese leaders on August 15, the day Japan surrendered in 1945, have drawn protests from other Asian nations, especially China and South Korea, which experienced occupation and wartime atrocities by Japan.

While Koizumi was in office, his repeated visits to the shrine strained ties with neighbouring nations.

Abe refrained from visiting the shrine on the anniversary while he was premier to try to mend ties with China and South Korea.

Fukuda and most of his cabinet members said they planned not to go.

The Yasukuni Shrine honours 2.8 million war dead, including more than 1,000 convicted war criminals and 14 convicted Class-A war criminals. (dpa)