Japan asks China for compensation
Tokyo, Sept. 28: Japan will ask China to pay for damage to two coastguard boats from collisions with a trawler that sparked a heated diplomatic dispute, the top government spokesman, Mr Yoshito Sengoku, said on Monday.
Asked whether the repair work would be paid for by Japan, he said “Japan will have to demand the restoration” through diplomatic channels from China.
Beijing and Tokyo have been engaged in their worst row in years after Japan on September 8 arrested a Chinese skipper, since released, suspected of ramming two of its coastguard vessels in disputed waters in the East China Sea. Mr Sengoku also said it was now up to China to start repairing the relationship between Asia’s two biggest economies as Beijing has launched a tirade of diplomatic protests, snubs and threats.
China is still holding four Japanese nationals it detained last week for allegedly filming a military installation. “Right now, the ball is in China’s court,” said Mr Sengoku, the chief Cabinet secretary and right-hand man to the Prime Minister, Mr Naoto Kan. “I think there are many things that China has to consider after the issue was settled in the form of the release,” Mr Sengoku said.
The dispute showed no sign of easing at the weekend when, despite the skipper’s release, China repeatedly demanded that Japan apologise over the incident and pay compensation over the skipper’s detention.
Mr Kan said Japan had no intention of doing so. The tense maritime incident that kicked off the row took place near a disputed Japan-administered island chain — known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China — in the East China Sea.
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