Is there anyone who still believes that the Noda government decision to “nationalize” the Senkaku islands (claimed and by China as their “sacred territory” andcalled Diaoyudao) was not a gigantic blunder? I would venture that by now–as they watch the spreading anti-Japanese protests in China, recently including attacks on Japanese diplomatic missions and pillaging of Japanese businesses–defenders of the government’s move in Japan are a small and still diminishing minority.

Japan and Russia are working to set up the participation of their leaders in a judo-related event in Vladivostok, as part of an initiative to strengthen bilateral ties through "judo diplomacy," it was learned Saturday.

The Japanese government is in the final stages of negotiations to bring a hotly disputed set of small islands in the East China Sea under public ownership, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Friday, stressing his country's claims of sovereignty.

The result, as one Japanese analyst put it, was that “China scored an own goal,” immediately reversing what had been a favourable trend in bilateral relations under the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. More generally, while China spends billions of yuan in efforts to increase its soft power in Asia, its behaviour in the South China Sea contradicts its own message

Japanese naval and air force commanders suspended trips to South Korea which had been scheduled to start on Monday as part of a military exchange program, the South's defense ministry said.

Strategic mutual trust and national feelings between China and Japan have been strained, and think tanks from both nations on Wednesday called for a crisis management mechanism to cool down the heated bilateral spats.

“NATO is more than just a military Alliance”, the Secretary General said. “It is also a community of shared beliefs and principles. All members share the same fundamental values of liberty, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. And all our members are prepared to defend these values whenever necessary”, he added.

Kazuo Korenaga, executive director of the Japan-Korea Economic Association in Tokyo, a group that seeks to promote business and cultural exchange between the two countries, said that, “Politics should be politics, the economy should be the economy. Economic sectors, including the treatment of South Korean stars in the Korean boom, should not be influenced by this issue.”