China: Thousands of Chinese demonstrators stoned the Japanese embassy and ambassador's residence, attacked Toyota cars and sushi bars and shouted anti-Japanese slogans in a rally in Beijing on Saturday.
They marched through central Beijing chanting "Down with Japan", protesting against Japan's wartime past as well as Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
The demonstrators broke windows at the Japanese embassy and at the ambassador's residence, where they shouted "Come out, Japanese pig". They held banners referring to the Japanese as "excrement" and "prostitutes".
Even though economic relations between the two neighbours are good, the Chinese still bitterly resent the Japanese invasion in 1931 and the brutal occupation until 1945.
Anti-Japanese sentiment has been running particularly high since Japan approved a textbook last week that the Chinese believe tries to gloss over the brutality of Japan's 14-year occupation.
The official news agency Xinhua reported that about 10,000 protesters took part in rallies. Some wore red signs on their chest with a traditional Chinese dragon saying "Reject Japanese goods".
When riot police rushed to protect Japan's diplomatic compound, the demonstrators shouted: "Chinese people shouldn't protect Japanese."
A strong police presence remained around the city's embassy district yesterday, with the entire area sealed off.
The Chinese government complains every year when Japanese prime minister Koizumi Junichiro visits the Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are honoured alongside other Japanese who died during the second World War.
However, the government in Beijing distanced itself from the marchers' actions.
"Some people in Beijing organised a demonstration themselves in protest against the wrong attitude and practice Japan had taken recently on the issue of its history of aggression," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.
He said the government had demanded that demonstrators "keep calm and sane" and make their protest "in a lawful and orderly way".
The internet in China has been buzzing with anti-Japanese sentiment in recent weeks. About 20 million people are believed to have signed an online petition against Japan getting a seat on the UN Security Council. Saturday's rally was mostly organised through e-mail and instant messaging, organisers said. The embassy assault prompted an official complaint from Tokyo.