Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato visited the war-linked Yasukuni shrine on Friday as Japan marked the 80th anniversary of its surrender in World War II, the first Cabinet members confirmed to have done so since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took office in October.Ishiba sent a ritual offering to the Tokyo shrine without visiting it during the day, according to a source. The Shinto shrine, which honors convicted war criminals along with Japan's war dead, is viewed by Asian neighbors as a symbol of the country's past militarism, drawing immediate backlash fro…READ FULL ARTICLE