Economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, center, heads for Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 13, 2021. (Kyodo)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Economic and fiscal policy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Friday visited Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, seen by Japan's neighbors as a symbol of its past militarism.

       The Shinto shrine honors convicted war criminals along with more than 2.4 million war dead.

       The visit by Nishimura, the person charged with leading the country's response to the coronavirus, comes ahead of the 76th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II on Sunday.

       While Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has not said whether he plans to visit Yasukuni in person, no sitting premier has done so since Shinzo Abe in December 2013. That trip drew a sharp backlash from China and South Korea and was also criticized by the United States.

       Nishimura said he made an offering, paid for out of his own pocket, as a member of the House of Representatives.

       "I prayed for those who passed away in the war to rest in peace. Japan's prosperity was built on their sacrifice. I vowed to continue pushing Japan forward on its postwar path as a pacifist state, and to never allow the horrors of war to come upon us again," he told reporters.

       Abe was still prime minister at the date of last year's anniversary and four of his Cabinet ministers visited the shrine, including Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and education minister Koichi Hagiuda.

       Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday both he and Suga will "make an appropriate decision" on whether to visit this year.

       No Cabinet members went to the shrine during its biannual festivals last October or in April after Suga took office in September last year.

       Nishimura's visit came amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across Japan. The nationwide tally of daily cases topped 18,000 on Thursday, eclipsing the previous high of 15,812 from a day earlier.

       Tokyo, currently under its fourth state of emergency over the pandemic and having just finished hosting the Olympics with the Paralympics coming later this month, reported 4,989 new cases on Thursday, the second-most on record.

       Established in 1869 to commemorate those that gave their lives for Japan, Yasukuni in 1978 added wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo and other convicted war criminals to the war dead enshrined there.

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