BEIJING, Aug 7 (AP) -- Japan won its second straight Asian Cup, beating China 3-1 Saturday in a raucous final that sparked nationalistic passions among Chinese and fears of anti-Japanese violence.

More than 5,000 police and soldiers were at Beijing's Workers' Stadium following harassment of Japanese players and fans at previous games of the continent's most important soccer championship.

Japan opened the scoring in the 23rd minute on Takashi Fukunishi's close-range header. China's Li Ming tied it in the 31st with a left-footer from the top of the penalty area.

Koji Nakata put Japan ahead in the 65th minute off a corner kick by Shunsuke Nakamura. The ball skipped off Takayuki Suzuki's head and appeared to hit Nakata's hand.

China's best chances to tie came in the 89th minute but goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi made two excellent saves as Chinese attackers swarmed.

Japan's Keiji Tamada completed the scoring in the first minute of extra time, sending a hard, low shot past goalkeeper Liu Yunfei and silencing the flag-waving crowd of 65,000.

Japan has lost only twice to China in their last 10 meetings and has won all four of their Asian Cup matchups. China, which downed Iran and Indonesia en route to the title game, moved up 13 spots to No. 51 in FIFA's world rankings.

Chinese fans have booed during Japan's national anthem and hung banners demanding Tokyo apologize for its World War II invasion of China. Japanese fans have been pelted with garbage, although no serious violence has been reported.

Coaches from both teams and China's Foreign Ministry and state media called for calm after Beijing's ambassador to Tokyo promised Japan that Chinese authorities would restrain rowdy, anti-Japanese fans during the final.

Still, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Friday cautioned Japanese in China not to wear their blue national team jerseys or carry firecrackers or confrontational banners.

Although the crowd booed through the Japanese national anthem -- something Japan's government and coach Zico had specifically complained about -- there was less abuse inside the stadium than in Japan's previous games.

Several hundred Japan fans -- many displaying Chinese as well as Japanese flags -- sat in a separate section of the stadium where they were guarded by scores of police.

The harshest sentiment on show was a banner reading "This time, the Chinese people get to be the bullies" -- another reference to Japan's wartime record.

Before the game, fans paraded outside the stadium pounding drums. Some wore uniforms of the communist guerrilla army that battled the Japanese occupation and carried pictures of the army's leader, Mao Zedong, who went on to found the communist state.