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19 August 2012| last updated at 11:29AM

Japan to replace China envoy amid island row



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TOKYO: Japan plans to replace its ambassador to China possibly in October amid a growing territorial row over a group of islands in the East China Sea, the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday.

 

The ambassador, Uichiro Niwa, sparked controversy in June when he warned  that the Tokyo municipal government’s plan to buy some of the islands could  spark an “extremely grave crisis” between the Asian powers.
 
He has been under pressure from both ruling and opposition parties to  resign for misrepresenting Tokyo’s position that the islands, known as Senkaku  in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are an integral part of Japanese territory, the  daily said.
 
The Yomiuri said Niwa was expected to be removed in the foreign ministry’s  reshuffle of executive posts and key ambassadorial jobs after the current  session of parliament ends on September 8.
 
The ministry is making arrangements to replace Niwa with Shinichi  Nishimiya, the deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, who has  also served as a minister at the Japanese embassy in China and as consul  general in New York, it added.
 
Niwa may leave the post in October or later after attending events marking  the 40th anniversary of the normalisation of ties between the two countries on  September 29, the daily said.
 
The island dispute has flared anew as pro-China activists from Hong Kong  landed on Uotsurijima, one of the islands, and were deported by Japanese  authorities last week.
 
A group of Japanese nationalists and lawmakers also arrived at Uotsurijima  on Sunday with around a dozen of them swimming ashore where they planted  Japanese flags.
 
Niwa, a former chairman of major trading house Itochu Corp., assumed the  post in June 2010 with his vast experience in promoting trade and investment  links with China.
 
But in September 2010 he could do little to prevent Tokyo-Beijing ties from  worsening when Japan’s coastguard arrested and eventually deported a Chinese  trawler captain for ramming his ship into two Japanese patrol boats off the  disputed islands.
 
Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara announced in April that he had reached a  basic agreement to buy some of the islands.
 
In an interview with the Financial Times in June, Niwa said Ishihara’s move  would put at risk the progress achieved since the countries normalised  relations in 1972.
 
“If Mr Ishihara’s plans are acted upon, then it will result in an extremely  grave crisis in relations between Japan and China,” Niwa told the British  daily. “We cannot allow decades of past effort to be brought to nothing.” -- AFP

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