Japan's foreign minister is furious after a regional newspaper in China printed a map of Japan on its latest edition, with mushroom clouds graphically printed over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the map.

The words "Japan wants a war again" were printed in Chinese and English on the upper side of the map.

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In a press conference Tuesday, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida made the issue of the map a priority announcement, saying he had instructed the Japanese consulate in Chongqing to check if indeed there was such a map printed on the weekly Chongqing Youth News, and lodge a strong protest.

The newspaper is associated with the Chongqing Communist Youth League. 

The image was carried on the Global Times which is published by the official Communist Party paper People's Daily.

Minster Kishida said it was "extremely thoughtless" to have such illustrations that remind people of the atomic bombs dropped by Allied forces on the two Japanese cities near the end of World War II.

It was the first and only use of nuclear weapons in warfare.

Kishida is a native of Hiroshima and used to be a politician in the city.

During the press conference, Minister Kishida said he cannot approve of the appearance of the illustrations, as the foreign minister of the "only country" to have suffered atomic bombings.

The publication of the graphic map coincided with the observance of the 77th anniversary of the formal start of the Sino-Japan war, and release by China of archives related to Japanese atrocities during the war. 

Beijing has openly protested Japan's move to revisit its pacifist constitution and enabled its military forces to pursue a policy of collective self-defense.

The shift in policy implies Japanese military forces could now be used to assist neighboring countries in Asia in case of aggression by foreign forces.

TagsFumio Kishida, Tokyo, World War II