Japan Ex-China Envoy: Tokyo Erred on Islands Row

Japan Ex-China Envoy: Tokyo Erred on Islands Row:

(TOKYO) — Japan’s former envoy to China says his country erred in choosing to buy islands claimed by both Japan and China last fall, infuriating Beijing, and now both sides have no choice but to allow the issue to cool. Uichiro Niwa, a former trading house executive who served as ambassador to Beijing from mid-2010 until late last year, told reporters on Monday that the purchase of the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea by Japan’s central government was poorly timed and seemed driven by factors he could not explain. (MORE: Ready or Not, Japan to Ease Rules on Foreign Intervention) “They may have had access to information that I didn’t know,” Niwa said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “But from my personal point of view the timing was bad.” Niwa, the first private sector figure to be chosen as ambassador to China, found himself at odds with the Japanese government, especially after then-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pushed ahead with a plan to buy several of the islands from their private owner. The purchase was apparently aimed at pre-empting a plan by outspoken Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to not only buy the islands but develop them, but Beijing was outraged. The islands, known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkakus in Japan, have been under Japanese control for decades, but Beijing says they have been Chinese territory for centuries. Taiwan also claims them. The purchase prompted sometimes violent anti-Japanese protests in China and hammered exports to Japan’s biggest overseas market. “The Japanese government should have taken into account the possibility that this may have been a point of contention,” Niwa said. At the very least, he said, Japan needed to provide “a better explanation to China and to the international community.” Niwa, whose former company Itochu Corp. has extensive interests in China, faced criticism from some in Japan for not being tough enough toward China regarding the disputed islands, which are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and a potential wealth of gas, oil and other undersea resources.