- Title: JAPAN: Yokohama's Chinatown not optimistic APEC will improve Sino-Japan relations
- Date: 13th November 2010
- Summary: YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (NOVEMBER 12, 2010) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE GATEWAY IN FRONT OF CHINATOWN SIGN IN CHINESE LETTERS THAT READS "CHINATOWN" PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH CHINATOWN STORE SIGNS IN CHINESE CHARACTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 73-YEAR-OLD JAPANESE STORE OWNER IN CHINATOWN, TOMIHIKO IKEDA, SAYING: "It's such a complicated issue. I don't think the two countries will resolve problems in APEC. I don't think they'll even talk about the issue." (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 68-YEAR-OLD JAPANESE LOCAL RESIDENT, SHIGEKO AZUMA, SAYING: "Things were going well until now so both countries need to apologise. Everyone is just thinking about themselves and that's why it's gotten worse." PEOPLE WALKING IN CHINATOWN (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 22-YEAR-OLD CHINESE STUDENT IN JAPAN, LIU WEI, SAYING: "Personally, of course I wish the Sino-Japan relation to improve, but for China, it is also good to keep our own territories." (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 47-YEAR-OLD CHINESE RESIDENT IN JAPAN, XU SEN, SAYING: "The 44-minute long video has been widely circulated among the Japanese people, to show whose fault it was. We've lost our faces as Chinese people. Do they even care about the overseas Chinese? Have they ever considered the livelihoods of the overseas residents, who are both new and old to Japan? Never." MORE OF PEOPLE WALKING
- Embargoed: 28th November 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVADE2WM9UJSLD2FWJZGRVIP1SZU
- Story Text: As Japan and China grapple with geopolitical tensions, which could affect the mood at this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' meeting in the Japanese port city of Yokohama, local residents and tourists from Asia's top two economies showed mutual weariness on the latest of Sino-Japan relations.
Japanese and Chinese in Yokohama, also home to Japan's biggest Chinatown, walked along the narrow strip of Yokohama Chinatown while enjoying pork buns and chestnuts on Friday (November 12) -- a day before the APEC leaders summit.
On alleys crammed with Chinese restaurants, shops and stalls selling roasted chestnuts, Japanese and ethnic Chinese vendors and visitors said the political rancour will likely to continue between the two nations as speculation simmers over whether Chinese President Hu Jintao will formally meet Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan during APEC.
"It's such a complicated issue. I don't think the two countries will resolve problems in APEC. I don't think they'll even talk about the issue," Tomihiko Ikeda, 73-year-old Japanese store owner in Yokohama Chinatown, told Reuters.
Sino-Japanese relations have taken a sharp dive due to a feud over claims to isles in the East China Sea near potentially huge maritime gas and oil reserves, which comes at a time when vibrant China grabs stagnant Japan's No. 2 world economic ranking.
While mutual mistrust divides the publics of each country, both ethnic Chinese and Japanese residents in the 150-year-old Chinatown said they are hoping for the two countries to amend ties.
"Things were going well until now so both countries need to apologise. Everyone is just thinking about themselves and that's why it's gotten worse," said Shigeko Azuma, 68, a local Japanese resident.
Chinese resident Liu Wei agrees.
"Personally, of course I wish the Sino-Japan relation to improve, but for China, it is also good to keep our own territories," added the 22-year-old Chinese national Liu Wei in Japan for postgraduate studies.
Relations deteriorated sharply in September when Japan detained a Chinese trawler captain after his boat collided with Japanese vessels near disputed isles in the East China Sea.
Concerns grew in Japan that the row over the isles, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, could spill over into business ties, especially when China imposed shipment restrictions on rare earth exports to Japan after the spat.
Sino-Japan relations worsened this week when a member of Japan's Coast Guard admitted on Wednesday (November 9) putting a video of a collision between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats on the Internet, a development that could hurt efforts to mend bilateral ties.
Beijing last week expressed concern to Japan about the video, which appears to show the Chinese boat being steered into the patrol vessels and could harden Japanese public opinion against China.
"The 44-minute long video has been widely circulated among the Japanese people, to show whose fault it was. We lost our faces as Chinese people," Xu Sen, 47-year-old Chinese resident in Japan, told Reuters.
"Do they even care about the overseas Chinese? Have they ever considered the livelihood of the overseas residents, who are both new and old to Japan? Never," he added.
Some 680,500 Chinese were registered in Japan as residents or visitors in 2009, data from Japan's Justice Ministry showed.
That figure has more than doubled in the last ten years as the two economies became increasingly intertwined.
For all the ructions over disputed islands in the East China Sea, both countries have a big stake in bilateral trade, which has become all the more important with U.S. and European markets weighed with economic woes.
Japan and China together account for about 17 percent of the world's economic output and China, edging past Japan as Asia's biggest economy, is Japan's biggest trading partner with bilateral trade worth 270 billion U.S. dollars in 2009.
Leaders from Asia-Pacific economies are flying into Japan to discuss ways to boost trade and shore up economic growth, but friction over currencies and geopolitical rivalries threaten to undermine regional harmony.
The 21-member APEC forum includes the world's three biggest economies -- the United States, China and Japan -- and some of the fastest growing emerging ones such as Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico.
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