Japan's prime minister Monday demanded China take responsibility for the safety of Japanese working in China and said it was "very regrettable" that protesters threw rocks at the Tokyo's embassy in Beijing and Japanese students were beaten up. Demonstrations against Japan have spread across China after Tokyo last week approved a revised edition of a school history textbook critics say whitewashes Japan's brutal wartime colonization of Asian nations last century. About 1,000 people threw rocks and broke windows at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Saturday, while two Japanese students were beaten with beer mugs and ashtrays at a Shanghai restaurant. Meanwhile, 10,000 people gathered outside a Japanese-run supermarket in the southern city of Shenzhen on Sunday to call for a boycott of Japanese goods. "It is very regrettable. This kind of thing must not be allowed to happen," Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi said of the damage inflicted by the protesters. "China is responsible for the safety of Japanese people who are working in China. I would like them to be well aware of this." Asked how he would respond to the injuries suffered by Japanese citizens, Koizumi said "I ask that China do all it can to prevent a recurrence.""
