In pictures: Yasukuni visit

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has paid a visit to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo on the anniversary of the country's surrender in World War II.

This is Mr Koizumi's sixth visit to the shrine, which commemorates Japan's 2.5 million war dead.

Visits to the shrine are controversial because fourteen convicted Class A war criminals, including war-time prime minister General Hideki Tojo, are enshrined there.

Former and serving military personnel came to the shrine to pay their respects to the dead.

Yasukuni has also come to serve as a focus for people who want to revise attitudes to Japan's war-time history.

Mr Koizumi's visit sparked angry protests, both diplomatic and public, from Japan's neighbours, who had warned the prime minister against going.

As Taiwanese protesters demonstrated outside Yasukuni, China and South Korea summoned Japanese ambassadors to issue formal protests.

In South Korea, around 3,000 demonstrators holding placards protested near the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

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