When I first started out in cultural diplomacy, I was surprised to learn that a very girly manga Kimi ni Todoke (From Me to You)--which is about a girl who doesn't realize she's fallen in love--was popular in Italy and Spain. But that's old news. Since then, I've learned that people's sensibilities and emotions are the same across all borders.

The Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya organised a special Sri Lanka Festival to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Japan and Sri Lanka in Nagoya, Japan on Saturday. A large gathering participated with Ambassador Admiral WasanthaKarannagoda as the Chief Guest.

Japan and China are mounting global diplomatic campaigns in hopes of strengthening their competing claims to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, with Tokyo recently reversing course on its policy of avoiding vigorous counterarguments to the Chinese claims.

Japan has decided to change tack in promoting its claim to disputed islands in the East China Sea amid an escalation of tensions with China over the territorial dispute, highlighted by a recent verbal tit-for-tat with Beijing at the United Nations. Instead of taking the view that there's no need to proactively promote its cause, Japan plans to step up a PR campaign outlining its claim to the disputed Senkaku Islands.

Japan has issued a formal complaint after South Korea invited a group of foreign journalists to a disputed island group, in the latest sign of deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two neighbours. Reporters from six US and European media groups, including the Financial Times, travelled to the Dokdo islands – known as Takeshima in Japan – on Thursday on a visit organised by the government.

The South Korean government will place commercials both at home and abroad next year defending its sovereignty over its easternmost islets of Dokdo, stepping up a public relations drive against Japan's territorial claim to them, foreign ministry officials here said Thursday.

Japan Inc is charging into Myanmar. The rush began one night last October, when Myanmar's new president rolled out a map after dinner to show an aging Japanese power broker a prize that could be Tokyo's to develop - a swathe of land nearly as big as Macau.