TOKYO, Oct 2, (Agencies): Nationalist groups rallied in Japan on Saturday against the country’s “diplomatic defeat” to China in a maritime dispute, amid growing Russian pressure over another simmering territorial row.
Japanese national flags fluttered in Tokyo’s Yoyogi park where organisers said some 1,500 people had gathered, with many holding banners reading: “Never tolerate weak Kan government defeated to Chinese threats”.
The rally was organised by a nationalist network chaired by former air force chief Toshio Tamogami, who was fired in October 2008 for penning an essay calling for the nation to shed elements of its post-World War II pacifism.
“China is claiming its sovereignty of the Senkaku and even eyeing at getting (southern) Okinawa main island under its control,” said Tamogami in his statement. “The time has come for us to bolster our defence.”
Following the rally, the anti-China protesters marched through Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya district, chanting: “Brave Japanese will fight! Proud Japanese will fight!”

Disputed
They accuse China of an “invasion of the Senkaku” — the Japanese name for disputed islands in the East China Sea, known as Diaoyu in China — and are angry at Beijing’s perceived hardline response to a diplomatic spat.
“Japan became numb because the peaceful time lasted too long,” said Hiromitsu Yanashima, 31, hoisting a rising-sun flag. “We need to realise that China is thrusting a knife point at us.”
Asia’s two largest economies have been involved in a tense standoff since Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain near the disputed islands on September 8.
Japan has since released the captain, but the move did little to ease tensions and left Kan open to domestic attacks from political conservatives claiming he had caved in to Chinese bullying.
As the row with China simmers, the centre-left Kan is facing another diplomatic challenge with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expected to visit the disputed Kuril Islands.
The islands, which lie north of Japan’s Hokkaido island, have been controlled by Moscow since they were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II but Tokyo still claims the southernmost four islands as Japanese territory.
The row has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II.
“I think Russia is taking passage in Japan’s weak diplomacy,” Yanashima said.
But some onlookers of the rally said they felt uneasy about the heated argument of the protesters.
“Before saying we are proud Japanese, we should be proud individuals. I feel rallying under such slogans may lead us to a war again,” said teacher Yasuko Hirano.

Strongly
China reacted strongly to the Senkaku dispute, freezing high-level talks and visits and taking punitive economic measures, according to industry sources, such as temporarily halting rare earth exports to Japan.
The damaging row, which has so far lasted more than three weeks, appears to have some way left to run, with Tokyo and Beijing continuing to trade calls for the other side to come to heel.
Beijing has issued a travel warning, cautioning its citizens over visiting Japan after right-wing nationalists harassed a group of Chinese tourists this week, surrounding and kicking their bus and hurling abuse.
China last month detained four Japanese construction workers for filming at a restricted military site before allowing three of them to return home Friday. One man remains in custody for further questioning.

On the Russian issue, Japan has already warned that a visit by Medvedev to the Kuril Islands would seriously hurt ties after he said he planned to travel to the islands while on a trip to the Far East this week and was only prevented by bad weather.
A Kremlin source said Friday that Medvedev is expected to visit Japan for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
Meanwhile, China has called on Japan to “maintain the full spectrum of relations” between the two nations amid a damaging territorial row that has rumbled on for more than three weeks.
“China attaches great importance to its relations with Japan. We hope Japan will work with China to maintain the full spectrum of bilateral relations,” said Ma Zhaoxu, the chief spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs.
The statement came after Kan called on China to behave as a “responsible member of the international community” as the two sides work through their worst spat in several years, centred on a disputed island chain.

He said the Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyu islands in Chinese, “have always been Chinese territory” and repeated Beijing’s line that Tokyo’s arrest and detention of the fisherman was “absurd” and “illegal”.
Earlier Friday, Kan told the opening of the Japanese parliamentary session: “The Senkaku islands are an integral part of our country, historically and under international law.”
Japan’s centre-left leader also voiced concerns about China’s military muscle and its recent display of hardball diplomacy in the bitter spat.
“We are concerned that China... has strengthened its defence power without transparency and that it has intensified its maritime activities in regions from the Indian Ocean to the East China Sea,” Kan said.
Transparency
Japan and its top security ally the United States have in the past called for greater transparency in China’s military spending, which has seen double-digit growth for much of the past two decades.
The comments Friday from Ma, China’s most senior foreign affairs spokesman, could be an attempt by Beijing to ease the row between the two economic giants that began with the arrest of the fisherman for allegedly ramming Japanese coastguard vessels.

In an apparent conciliatory move by Japan, Tokyo this week signalled Kan’s intention to go to Brussels for the EU-Asia summit in a bid to engineer a meeting with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
Feelings in Japan continue to run high, however, with nationalists staging a rally in Tokyo on Saturday to protest at what they saw as the country’s “diplomatic defeat” in the trawler row.
In a related story, Japan and China must repair strained ties for the sake of the global economy, but rebuilding trust will take more than a high-level hand-shake, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said on Saturday.
“The biggest — I won’t say only — but the biggest centre of growth in the world economy is Asia,” Sengoku told Reuters in an interview at the prime minister’s official residence, one day before Prime Minister Naoto Kan heads for an Asia-Europe summit.

“To further develop Asian economic growth, what is needed more than anything is the enrichment, strengthening and development of strategic, mutually beneficial relations between Japan and China,” he added.
Sengoku, the de facto No.2 in Kan’s cabinet, said he could not predict whether Kan would meet Wen when the two attend the Asia-Europe summit in Brussels next week, but suggested restoring trust would be a complex process.
“It is necessary not merely to shake hands at a high level but to link this to restoring trust at a practical level. I am not pessimistic, but neither am I optimistic.”
Sino-Japanese ties are plagued by China’s memories of Japan’s past military aggression, rivalry over territory and resources, and Tokyo’s suspicions as Beijing spends big chunks of its growing wealth on modernising its military and turning its navy into a blue power fleet that can project its power.
A Japanese politician visited Beijing this week on a mission to arrange a meeting between Kan and Wen, a report said Saturday.

Goshi Hosono, a member of Japan’s lower house, visited Beijing on Wednesday bearing a letter from Kan in a bid to mend relations strained by a row over islands claimed by both Japan and China, Kyodo news agency reported.
Hosono, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, met State Councillor Dai Bingguo to propose arranging a meeting between Kan and Wen in Brussels this week, on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), Kyodo reported.
Kan later told reporters he had “no knowledge” about Hosono’s move and it remained unclear if such a meeting would take place during ASEM, which starts on Monday.
The reports follow a call by China on Japan to “maintain the full spectrum of relations” between the two nations, despite the damaging territorial row that has rumbled on for more than three weeks.