Abe sees World War One echoes in Japan-China tensions

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addresses a session at the annual meeting of the WEF in Davos January 22, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe compared current tensions between Japan and China to rivalry between Britain and Germany on the eve of World War One, but his top spokesman denied the Japanese leader meant war between Asia's two big powers was possible.

Sino-Japanese ties, long plagued by what Beijing sees as Japan's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China in the 1930s and 1940s, have worsened recently due to a territorial row, Tokyo's mistrust of Beijing's military buildup and Abe's December visit to a shrine that critics say glorifies Japan's wartime past.