Takami Eto, 78, a senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), made "unforgiveable remarks degrading foreigners in Japan, primarily North Koreans," the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) said in a statement.

"The remarks indicate that ideas of militarism and suzerainty (over Koreans) are still rooted deeply in the Japanese political world," said the group, largely regarded as North Korea's representative office in Japan.

On Saturday, Eto, former minister in charge of management and coordination affairs, told the party's local chapter meeting in central Japan that illegal immigrants are mostly "thieves and murderers."

Eto said the Kabukicho night-club district in central Tokyo had become "a lawless area controlled by 'dai-sangokujin.'"

"Dai-sangokujin" or "sangokujin" is a derogatory Japanese word that generally refers to people from former Japanese colonies in Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula.

Eto also claimed there were a million such illegal immigrants engaging in serious crimes in Japan and that there would be riots if tens of thousands of refugees come to Japan in the wake of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula.

The veteran politician also rubbished Chinese claims over the extent of the 1937 Rape of Nanjing, saying "(the claim that) victims numbered 300,000 is a fabrication and whopping lie."

China says some 300,000 civilians were butchered when Japanese troops embarked on an orgy of destruction, pillage, rape and murder after invading the eastern Chinese city. Allied trials of Japanese war criminals documented 140,000 victims.

A secretary to Eto said he had no plan to make an apology or withdraw the remarks.

In Hong Kong 10 protesters set fire to pictures of Eto and a Japanese wartime flag replica outside the Japanese consulate to vent their anger over his comments on the Nanjing massacre.

The remarks were the latest in a series of Japanese politicians' statements seen as provocative to Asian countries which suffered Tokyo's aggression before and during World War II.

In June, LDP policy chief Taro Aso, defended Japan's attempt to force Koreans to adopt Japanese-style names during the colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

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