The growing protests in China sparked counter protests in Japan, where Chinese diplomatic and business facilities in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagasaki were targeted with graffiti and threatening letters containing razor blades and in one instance, a bullet.
In Osaka, a man who set himself on fire April 17 after hurling a bottle at the Chinese consulate was hospitalised with severe burns on his hands and abdomen.
Tokyo's April 13 decision to grant exploration rights to a private company in its exclusive economic zone (which is disputed by China) didn't help matters, with Beijing describing the move as 'provocative.'
Japan's demand for a apology and compensation for the attacks on Japanese interests in China was gruffly rebuffed when the foreign ministers of the two nations met in Beijing on April 17.
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The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologise to the Japanese people.The main problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people ... especially in its treatment of history,' Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told his Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura.
Blood and mayhem after a demonstration.
Photograph: Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images
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