China baulks at 'long live emperor' chant by Japan's Abe
Photo of Shinzo Abe throwing his arms in the air while chanting 'long live the emperor' makes national headlines in China
Japan's hawkish Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has apparently upset China when he attended a ceremony last week, the first time the country marked the anniversary of the day it regained sovereignty after its defeat in the second world war.
The Restoration of Sovereignty Day event drew great interest from media and political analysts worldwide, but state broadcaster CCTV said most of its international peers missed one detail.
Towards the end of the event, Abe and other guests, mostly men in dark suits, "threw their hands up in the air and cried ' banzai!' (long life) to send the royal couple off," Reuters said.
Tenno heika banzai, or "long live the emperor", was commonly chanted by Japanese soldiers in the second world war, said CCTV, adding that it was "extremely unusual" for a top government official to use it after the war.
Accusing Abe of "hijacking" the emperor for his own nationalist agenda, CCTV cited criticism of the chant from within Japan, quoting media, scholars and opposition party members. "It felt like we were back in pre-war times," CCTV quoted a Japanese citizen as saying.
Japan denied that the chanting was planned, said CCTV.