About 30 activists gathered outside the Japanese Consulate General in Hong Kong on Tuesday to protest a Japanese rightist group's construction of a Shinto shrine on a disputed island in the East China Sea.
The activists, holding banners and shouting slogans, criticized Tokyo for allowing the Japan Youth Federation to build the shrine on the Senkaku Islands, called the Diaoyu Islands in China.
Both China and Japan claim they have sovereignty over the islands, which are also called the Tiaoyutai Islands by Taiwan, which also claims them.
The Hong Kong protesters condemned the shrine's construction and said it was a move to revive militarism in Japan.
"Historically, since the Ming Dynasty, for several hundred years the Diaoyu Islands have been China's territory," Ng Yathing, chairman of the Reparation Association, told reporters. The association is seeking reparations from Japan for its occupation of Hong Kong during World War II.
"We urge people to squarely face the revival of Japanese militarism, which is a disaster to us and to Asia," Ng said.
The Japan Youth Federation reportedly built the shrine on the islands partly to honor the memory of Japanese who starved to death there during World War II.
In July 1996, the group built a lighthouse on the disputed territory, provoking protests and angry responses from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Reacting to the shrine incident, China's Foreign Ministry has asked the Japanese government to remove the structure and ensure similar incidents are not repeated.
Some Hong Kong protesters urged Beijing on Tuesday to take more action to defend Chinese sovereignty over the islands.
A legislator belonging to the pro-China Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, Lau Kong-wah, called on Beijing to issue a statement voicing a firm stance on China's claim to the islands.