The Foreign Ministry also summoned the Japanese ambassador to China, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In South Korea, about 60 members of the Korean Federation of Teachers' Association rallied near the Japanese embassy.

"You can try to distort history textbooks, but you can't change history," the protesters chanted.

Seoul disputes Tokyo's claim to a set of islands known in Korea as Tokto and in Japan as Takeshima.

A similar row over a Japanese history book, which critics said whitewashed wartime atrocities, sparked protests across China last April when thousands stoned Japanese government buildings and businesses.

A senior Japanese consular official based in China said relations between Beijing and Tokyo had yet to recover.

Last May, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi abruptly cancelled a meeting with Koizumi and returned home. Chinese officials later made clear it was a reaction to the Japanese leader's refusal to end visits to the war shrine.