Chinese man arrested over fire at Japan’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine after protesting 1937 Nanjing massacre

A Chinese man suspected of starting a fire inside a Tokyo war shrine at the centre of rows with Japan’s Asian neighbours was arrested by police on Wednesday, reports said.

The man, 55, allegedly set fire to a pile of newspapers inside the grounds of the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours 2.5 million war dead but also enshrines second world war criminals.

Jiji Press agency and public broadcaster NHK both reported the arrest and said the fire was quickly extinguished, with no reports of any damage or injuries.

The man was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, reports said. A spokesman for the shrine acknowledged the incident while avoiding further comment as “police are investigating”. A Tokyo police spokesman declined to confirm the report.

Bystanders reportedly said the man had been holding a banner with a message protesting the 1937 Nanjing massacre. China says 300,000 people died in a six-week spree of killing, rape and destruction by the Japanese military that began in December 1937 after invading troops seized the city of Nanjing.

Some respected foreign academics estimate a lower number of victims, but mainstream scholarship does not question that a massacre took place.