Japanese emperor urged to return inscribed Chinese relic
Campaigners say Tang dynasty relic in Imperial Palace in Tokyo was stolen by Japanese troops
A pressure group has demanded that the Japanese royal family return an ancient inscription it says was looted from China in the early part of the last century.
Tong Zeng , the chairman of the Chinese Association for Claiming Compensation from Japan, delivered a letter to Japan's ambassador to China calling for the relic to be handed back.
The inscription on a large piece of stone dates back to the Tang dynasty (618-907). It commemorates the emperor making the ruler of the then Bohai state a king. The association alleges it was taken by the Japanese from a district of Dalian in 1908 after the Russian-Japanese war.
The inscription was now at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, the association said.
The group has been involved in numerous lawsuits, usually involving claims for damages after Japan's occupation of China in the lead-up to and during the second world war.