Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited a shrine honouring Japan's war dead in a move that led to China warning that already poor relations would worsen.
Thursday's visit to the shrine, which honours 2.5 million war dead including convicted war criminals, appears to be a departure from Abe's "pragmatic" approach to foreign policy, in which he tried to avoid alienating neighbouring countries.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang issued a strong rebuke in a statement posted on the ministry's website.
Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reports from reports from Hong Kong.
