In the latest incident involving the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, authorities on Wednesday arrested a Chinese man suspected of starting a fire on the premises, police and firefighters said.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Guo Shaojie, a 55-year-old Chinese man with reported links to a nationalist group, on suspicion of trespassing at the controversial Shinto shrine, which honors convicted Class-A war criminals along with millions of war dead and is often seen by neighboring countries, including China and South Korea, as a symbol of Japan's militarist past.
Guo, who said he is a civil servant, admitted to police that he had lit a newspaper on fire in front of a gate, in the middle of the site, that leads to the main shrine.