No doubt you've seen the news about the Takeshima and Senkaku disputes: Japan is sparring with China, South Korea and Taiwan over some specks in the ocean. Why is this happening?

After waging a rather impressive charm offensive for some years -- after pursuing a subdued diplomacy in which the Iron Chancellor would've taken pride -- Beijing has wantonly squandered the reserves of goodwill it accumulated in Asian capitals.

China and Japan should give public diplomacy a chance rather than rely only on the official channels to help resolve their conflict over the ownership of Diaoyu Islands, Chinese scholars say.

The Japanese media showed images of huge crowds throwing bottles and eggs at the Japanese embassy in Beijing as they chanted nationalistic slogans. Television stations also carried lengthy reports from inside a Japanese-owned mall -- elsewhere in China -- which was slowly being surrounded by increasingly violent demonstrators. Though life has continued as normal across Japan, many Japanese people are increasingly troubled by the dispute.

Chinese nationalists have for over a week now staged nationwide demonstrations against Japan which turned violent in some cities. The two countries are locked in a decades-old conflict over the ownership of a group of islets in the East China Sea, called in Chinese Diaoyu and Japanese Senkaku.

An exhibition titled ‘World of KIRIGAMI: A Hundred Flowers & Words’ featuring art works by Japanese artist Kanako Yaguchi will be held at the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Hanoi from September 22 to October 21.

Over the past several weeks national sentiments in China and Japan have been enflamed by activists from both countries landing on disputed islands in the East China Sea. As this battle has raged, a separate one has been held on the Chinese microblog site Weibo, which boasts more than 300 million users.

South Korea will rev up a public relations drive on social networking sites worldwide for its easternmost islets of Dokdo to counter Japan's claims to the islets, a high-ranking government official said Monday. Diplomatic tension between South Korea and Japan remains high following the unprecedented Aug. 10 visit to Dokdo by President Lee Myung-bak, who cited Tokyo's unrepentant attitude over its brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as a key reason for the trip.