Japan called for calm but braced for trouble with tight security on Friday, as low-key protests began ahead of its leg of the Olympic torch relay, following emotional scenes at other venues around the world.
The global torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games in August has provoked protests against China's rights record, especially in Tibet, as well as patriotic rallies by Chinese who say the West has vilified Beijing unfairly.
The flame is meant to transmit a message of peace and friendship, but its journey has been largely turned into a political event and the torch has been granted the sort of security usually reserved for state leaders.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura called for calm ahead of Saturday's relay in the central Japanese city of Nagano, a former Winter Olympics site.
"I hope this torch relay will take place peacefully in an atmosphere where everyone can celebrate," he told a news conference in Tokyo.
In Hanoi, Vietnam state-run radio reported that a U.S. citizen of Vietnamese origin had been expelled on accusations of planning anti-Chinese protests at next week's Olympics torch relay in Ho Chi Minh City.
Reclusive North Korea, for its part, vowed to "astonish the world" with pomp, ceremony and safety during its stage of the relay on Monday, Chinese state media reported.
"North Korea has fully prepared an Olympic Games torch relay in Pyongyang that will be high-quality, outstanding, safe and successful," China's official Xinhua news agency cited a North Korean official as saying.
RIGHTWING TRUCKS, PRO-TIBET BANNERS
The flame's arrival in Nagano was greeted by right wing activist trucks roaming the streets, displaying huge Japanese flags and blaring "go away".
Yellow T-shirt-clad supporters of the Falun Gong religious group, outlawed by Beijing, marched down a Nagano street with a brass band and yellow banners.
Dozens of people carrying pro-Tibet and Japanese flags later marched near the City Hall, blaring "Nagano City, cancel the torch relay now" as two vans of riot police trailed them.
