Sources say Tokyo police have obtained an arrest warrant for a 14-year-old Chinese boy in connection with graffiti at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. The boy left Japan for China on the day the graffiti was found in August.

Sources close to the investigation say the warrant, issued on Thursday, states the boy is suspected of damaging property and desecrating a place of worship.

The graffiti was written in what appeared to be black marker ink on a stone pillar at the shrine's entrance. It included characters for a Chinese word meaning toilet.

Security camera footage showed an image of a person approaching the pillar at night.

The sources say the boy arrived in Japan with others several days before the incident and stayed in Tokyo. They say he visited the shrine alone.

They say he left Japan from Haneda Airport in Tokyo on the day the graffiti was discovered.

In a separate case, graffiti was painted in red on the same pillar in May. Tokyo police have put two Chinese nationals on a wanted list over the case.

The shrine honors Japan's war dead. Those remembered include leaders convicted of war crimes after World War Two.