A man set himself on fire after hurling a bottle at the Chinese consulate general in the Japanese city of Osaka early yesterday, in the second weekend of violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China.
The middle-aged man, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.
"He is seriously injured with burns on the upper body but he is not in a life-threatening situation," an Osaka police spokesman said by telephone.
"We will question him on suspicion of vandalism," he said.
It appeared to be the latest retaliation for the protests in China against Tokyo's alleged failure to adequately apologize for its wartime aggression.
Chinese diplomatic and business facilities in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagasaki have been targeted with graffiti or threatening letters.
In Osaka, the man was stopped and questioned by police on guard when he approached the Chinese consulate general at about 2am yesterday.
"He suddenly threw a glass bottle toward the gate to the consulate general and his clothes caught fire around his abdomen," the police spokesman said.
The fire, possibly started by some kind of fuel, was quickly put out with a fire extinguisher, he said.
The consulate general in Osaka received two threatening letters last week, one containing a razor blade and the other a pistol cartridge.
A similar letter containing a razor blade was also mailed to the Chinese consulate general in Nagasaki, southern Japan, police confirmed yesterday.
"The envelope contained five memos mocking anti-Japanese demonstrations in China," a Nagasaki prefectural police spokesman said.
On Friday, the mailbox, doorplate and intercom of the Chinese ambassador's residence in Tokyo were daubed with graffiti written in red paint.
A week earlier in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, cracks, which could have been caused by an air gun, were discovered in the glass door of a building that includes a branch office of the Bank of China.
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