Japan has attacked cartoon drawings in a Chinese newspaper showing exploding mushroom clouds on a map of the country, saying they are offensive.

Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said as the only nation to have suffered atomic attacks, Japan will "never tolerate" such a depiction. It was "extremely imprudent" of the newspaper, he said, "and it rattled the nerves of atomic bomb survivors and their families".

The Chongqing Youth News carried a full-page map of Japan on July 3, with the cartoon of an exploding mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a title saying "Japan wants a war again". It came days after Japan reinterpreted its constitution to allow a greater role for its military.

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