TOKYO -- Nearly 100 Japanese parliamentary members from various political parties paid a joint visit to the notorious war-related Yasukuni Shrine on Friday morning. This move could upset China and South Korea.

Japanese lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo April 21, 2006. Nearly 100 lawmakers made a mass pilgrimage on Friday to the shrine, a move likely to upset China and South Korea. [Reuters]

The shrine visitors included 87 lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, two from the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, one each from the minor People's New Party and New Party Daichi, and six parliamentary secretaries of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.

Apart from the group, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Tamisuke Watanuki, leader of the People's New Party, also visited the shrine Friday, according to Kyodo News.

The lawmakers were part of a group that visits Yasukuni during spring and autumn festivals at the shrine as well as on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two.

The visit came at a particularly sensitive time for Japan-South Korea relations. The two neighbours are embroiled in a diplomatic spat over Japanese plans to conduct an ocean survey near a group of desolate islands claimed by both countries.

Koizumi, who has visited the Yasukuni Shrine in defiance of strong protests from China and other Asian nations for five consecutive years since taking office in 2001, said on late Thursday that he will "decide appropriately" whether to visit the shrine during its annual spring festival starting from Friday.

Asked about the possibility of future visits to the shrine, Koizumi told reporters on Friday: "I will decide appropriately."

Koizumi, who says he makes the visits to pray for peace and honour the war dead, last went in October, triggering protests from China and South Korea.

Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated to the lowest level since their normalization in 1972, due to Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine.

The shrine honors more than 2 million Japanese war dead along with 14 of Japan's wartime leaders charged as Class-A war criminals, who were responsible for the most atrocious crimes during Japan's war of aggression against its Asian neighbors.