Japan not willing to apologize to China

BEIJING | Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Sunday rejected China’s repeated demand that Tokyo apologize and offer compensation for the arrest of a Chinese boat captain whose detention caused relations between the Asian neighbors to plunge to their lowest level in years.

The diplomatic back-and-forth over the weekend demonstrated that nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the incident show few signs of dissipating. Tensions already have affected business ties between the nations’ intertwined economies — the world’s second- and third-largest.

“I have no intention of accepting [the demand] at all,” Mr. Kan said. “It is important for both sides to act with a broader point of view.”

Mr. Kan made the remarks after China reiterated its demand for an apology from Japan late Saturday, hours after Japanese authorities released the captain whose vessel collided with Japanese patrol boats near disputed islands this month.

Several major newspapers in China on Sunday carried reports about Chinese calls for an apology and compensation on their front pages, some with photos of the returned boat captain being greeted by his wife and son.

In Japan, opposition legislators lambasted the decision to release the captain as a sign that the government was caving into outside pressures.

“This is tone-deaf diplomacy,” said Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition party.

He said on a nationally televised news talk show Sunday that he was determined to pursue the move in parliament, including summoning officials for testimonies.

But Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party, defended the government’s handling of the crisis and denied any pressure on prosecutors to release the captain.

In southwestern Nagasaki, a 20-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of throwing a flare into the grounds of the Chinese Consulate in that city, police said.

No one was injured, a police official said. The man was taking part in a parade of right-wing trucks expressing anger at the dispute with China, he said.

Japanese authorities released the captain, Zhan Qixiong, early Saturday, and he was flown home by chartered plane to Fuzhou in China’s southeastern Fujian province.

But hopes that his release would defuse mounting tensions were dashed when China promptly demanded an apology and compensation from Japan.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said the demands were groundless and “absolutely cannot be accepted.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responded by saying, “China of course has the right to demand Japan apologize and make compensation.”

Story Continues →

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.