Angry anti-Japanese demonstrations were held for a second day Tuesday in Asian nations after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's homage at a shrine to Japan's war dead.
South Korea and China summoned Tokyo's ambassadors to protest at Koizumi's gesture, which reopened old wounds over Japan's militarist past. North Korea said Koizumi had insulted Asian people. Other countries also spoke out.
But analysts were quick to point out that no nation ordered firm sanctions against the head of the world's second largest economy.
South Korean students burned painted copies of the Japanese flag in Seoul after being stopped from getting to the Japanese embassy by thousands of riot police. "Kill Koizumi," said slogans painted on the flags.
Demonstrators at a separate rally burned a lifesize effigy of Koizumi. About 5,000 students turned up at another evening protest, while 2,000 people staged an anti-Japanese rally in the southern city of Pusan.
In Beijing, a lone demonstrator was stopped by police from unfurling a banner in front of Japan's embassy.
Police confronted the middle-aged man, but released him after a brief interrogation, witnesses said.
Chinese computer hackers said they had raided Japanese websites. In Hong Kong, demonstrators set fire to the wartime Imperial flag as they marched on the Japanese consulate.
Koizumi's visit to the Yasukini Shrine in Tokyo, which includes war criminals among the 2.5 million war dead, unleashed a wave of new anger among nations occupied by Japan in the last century.
Wednesday is the anniversary of the end of the Imperial Army occupation on August 15, 1945 and is a national holiday in South Korea.
Police will remain on alert, particularly after 20 men chopped off the tips of their little fingers in a show of anti-Japanese defiance in Seoul on Monday.
The South Korean foreign ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador, Terusuke Terada, to express concern at Koizumi's actions.
A statement read by Vice Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong said: "It is deeply regrettable that Prime Minister Koizumi paid respects at Yasukuni Shrine, which is a symbol of Japanese militarism, in defiance of the South Korean government's repeated expressions of concern."
The ministry called on the Japanese leader to "respect the positions and national sentiments of the countries concerned based on a correct understanding of history."
South Korea has already suspended some contacts with Japan in protest at new Japanese history textbooks that critics say whitewash Japan's past atrocities.
The books fail to mention the tens of thousands of Asian women, mainly from Korea, used as sex slaves for Imperial troops during World War II.
China's foreign ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador, Koreshige Anami, late Monday to make "solemn representations," the official Xinhua news agency said.
"This erroneous act has damaged the political foundation of Sino-Japanese relations as well as the feelings of the Chinese people and other Asian victims," Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
North Korea also joined the backlash against Koizumi. "Militarism is raising its head again in Japan," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary.
It warned that Koizumi's act would fuel "the rightist tendency" in Japan and called it "an insult to the Asian people who suffered unbearable disasters" during World War II.
Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement: "The Japanese government should have taken into consideration the reactions from neighbouring countries."
In Vietnam, foreign ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said in a statement: "Several countries have expressed concern over this event. We share that concern." -- SEOUL (AFP)
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