The most recent territorial dispute over the Senkaku (Japanese name)/Diaoyutai (Chinese name) Islands, located southwest of Okinawa (or north of Taiwan if you prefer), was triggered on Sept. 7 when a Chinese trawler attempted to ram two Japanese Coast Guard vessels. The blurry details of the collision were finally made public last week in a video released to the Diet.
Downplaying the incident, Spa! (Oct. 19) ran an article reporting that most Chinese people were comparatively subdued over the Senkaku/Diaoyutai issue, and noting that Japanese restaurant franchises in Chinese cities were doing "business as usual."
But that Spa! issue went on sale four days before Oct. 16, the day that protests flared up in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and four other cities. In Chengdu, store windows and display cases at a branch of the Ito Yokado supermarket were smashed by demonstrators campaigning for a boycott of Japanese goods, and according to other media reports, cars with Japanese nameplates were damaged.