TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - In a move likely to raise hackles in Asia, the Tokyo governor tipped as a future prime minister joined several ministers in homage at a controversial war shrine on Thursday, 57 years after Japan's World War Two surrender.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi marked the end of the war at secular ceremonies, after visits to the shrine last year and earlier this year sparked outrage from the Asian victims of Japan's wartime aggression.

To shouts of "Banzai! May you live 10,000 years!" from waiting supporters, right-wing Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara paid his respects, as did five members of the cabinet, a group of lawmakers including former prime minister Yoshiro Mori and thousands of ordinary people.

"I only did what was natural," Ishihara said after emerging from the shrine in central Tokyo, once a symbol of wartime nationalism and now a site where war criminals are enshrined among Japan's 2.5 million military war dead.

"My thoughts were that I will do my best so that Japan will not eventually become a subject state to a foreign country."

Koizumi's visit to the shrine last year, two days before the anniversary, had been the first by a prime minister in five years and enraged China and South Korea, for which August 15 is an equally emotive date.

This year, Koizumi avoided the sensitive date and visited Yasukuni in April. On Thursday, he paid homage at Chidorigafuchi National Tomb for Dead Soldiers, an austere garden next to Japan's Imperial Palace.

DAMAGE AND PAIN

Later, at an official annual ceremony at a hall in central Tokyo, Koizumi paid his respects to the more than three million Japanese who died in the war and touched on the suffering Japan caused.

"In the past war, Japan caused tremendous damage and pain to people in many countries, particularly those in Asian nations."

"As the representative of the Japanese people, I would like to renew feelings of profound remorse, and express sincere condolences to all the people who became victims," he said.

The words he used were virtually the same as last year, when Koizumi attended the ceremony for the first time since becoming prime minister in April 2001.

Emperor Akihito, whose father Hirohito was Japan's emperor during the war, also attended the gathering.

Five ministers, including Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma and Defence Minister Gen Nakatani, visited Yasukuni on Thursday.

Japan's top government spokesman, Yasuo Fukuda, hinted that Koizumi's April visit would not be his last.

"If there is something that China cannot understand about why the Japanese premier visits the shrine, we must try explaining so that Beijing will comprehend," Fukuda told a news conference.

In a reminder of Yasukuni's divisive effect on public opinion, a group of citizens, including relatives of war dead, said on Thursday they had filed a lawsuit against Koizumi, claiming his visit in April had violated Japan's constitution.

UNCOMPROMISING GOVERNOR

The Tokyo governor, an award-winning novelist and former ruling party politician, had been typically uncompromising in face of protests by critics who had said he was denigrating his office with his plans to visit the shrine.

Known for his anti-China rhetoric and his rants against illegal immigrants and the political establishment, of which he was long a member, Ishihara won a landslide victory in the Tokyo governor's race three years ago and many voters rank him as a politician they would like to see become prime minister.

Inside the shrine, where frail war veterans mixed with young black-clad nationalists, it was clear that he was among friends.

"I love him. He's not an extremist, not a rightist. He is thinking about the nation," said Soichi Ishiwata, a 69-year-old who said he regretted having been too young to fight in the war.

A small group of protesters made their presence felt, chanting anti-war slogans while those paying homage observed a minute's silence at midday.

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

Asian nations, especially South Korea and China, see visits there as an insult to the millions of their people killed by Japan's military aggression and say it glorifies war criminals.

Japan has been keen to ease tensions in a year when it co-hosted soccer's World Cup with South Korea in June and which will also see the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties with China. (With additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano) Nampa-Reuters 1035 150802 WEB story ENDS (NAMPA 151040)