Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, on Monday fulfilled his five-year-old pledge to visit Yasukuni shrine on the anniversary of the end of the second world war in a gesture that immediately drew strong criticism from China and South Korea.

Mr Koizumi, wearing tails, arrived by limousine at 7:40am and was greeted by several thousand people who had gathered to show support. His visit, on the 61st anniversary of the war’s end, the most sensitive date for Japan’s neighbours, was the first on August 15 of a sitting prime minister since Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985.