Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura lodged a formal protest with Chinese Ambassador Wang Yi on Sunday and demanded an apology for an anti-Japanese rally in Beijing the previous day that turned violent.

"A series of acts of vandalism on not only the Japanese Embassy and the ambassador's residence, but also Japanese firms, is indeed a serious problem," Machimura told reporters after a half-hour meeting with Wang at the Foreign Ministry.

But later Sunday in Beijing, Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said "the responsibility for the current state of affairs between Japan and China does not rest with China."