On 11 December 2009, the Germany government will name Berlin’s new airport after Willy Brandt, the former West German leader.  The airport is expected to complete by 2011. The Nobel Laureate in Peace made his famous visit in Poland by bending his keens to apology to the Jews regarding the Holocaust during WWII. Should anything [...]

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On 30 November 2009, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon (OPCW) opened its 14th conference in the Hague of Holland (till December 4th). The head of the Chinese delegation, Zhang Jun, insisted that “I hope that Japan will remove its chemical weapons in China, abandoned by the Japanese imperial army, as soon as [...]

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On 27 November 2009, the Chinese Defense Liang Guanglie and the Japanese Defense Minister Kitazawa Toshimi held a joint press briefing in Tokyo to announce a joint naval drill agreement in next year after the Chinese delegation arrived Japan for visiting. This military exchange will be the first joint naval exercise for search and rescue [...]

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When the Vice President of China, Xi Jinping, visited Japan on 14 December 2009, his visit created one of hottest debates in Japan. Since the Japanese emperor has prostate cancer in 1995, the Imperial Household Agency has asked any leaders from any countries must arrange the meeting with the emperor a month in advance as [...]

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Recently, Beijing University held a Japanese Studies Contest hosted by the center of Japanese studies. This contest is the only one in China offered at the master degree level.  Currently, about 70 universities offer Japanese Studies at the graduate level (including Japanese language and Japanese literature), and students continue to increase dramatically. This year, according [...]

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In 1942, the decision by the Tojo Hideki Administration forced about 40,000 Chinese brought to Japan into slavery, working in 135 factories (Asahi Shimbun). For the past 64 years, LDP refused to acknowledge the Japanese government’s mistakes by ignoring the slavery issue. On 23 October 2009, Nishimatsu Construction Corporation agreed with five Chinese to set [...]

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Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Pacific Forum CSIS, wrote an article in the Japan Times regarding Japan politics after the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won the parliamentary election. “The real obstacles to improved Japan-China relations defy any change in government and many require changes not in Tokyo, but in China. The issues include [...]

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The first execution of a Chinese citizen living in Japan occurred on 28 July 2009 since WWII.  In 1999, Chen Detong killed 3 people in Kawasaki, Japan. Chen was found guilty by the Tokyo Supreme Court in June 2006. Now, four more Chinese are waiting for the execution in Japan.

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During the U.S. occupation of WWII in Japan, the United States took large quantities of Japanese military government documents for the purpose of investigating Japan’s war crimes and gathering military intelligence. However, the US government copied about 3 percent of a total of 18 million pages of documents on microfilm and sent them back to [...]

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On 4 July 2009, the Japanese government decided to send its Self-Defense force to the Yonakuni Island. This led to an alert by the Chinese media including both Taiwan and Hong Kong. The area of the Yonakuni Island is about 28 sq. km. with 1,700 citizen including two policemen, located in south about 500 kilometers [...]

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According to the Japanese media, the Chinese government sentenced Yu Jiafu, a former reporter of Xinhua News Agency, to 18 years in prison recently. The 62-years-old reporter has admitted that he gave the top-secret information regarding the Chinese foreign policy of North Korea to foreign diplomats including Miyamoto Yuji, the Japanese Ambassador to China in [...]

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The 60-year-old Human Right Commission was replaced by the UN Human Rights Council on 15 March 2006. This year is election year for the members of the UN Human Rights Council (2009-2012): 5 seats from African States, 5 seats from Asian States, 2 seats from Eastern European States, 3 seats from Latin American & Caribbean [...]

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In the beginning of June (June first), Treasury Secretary Tim Githner went on his first foreign trip – China – to reassure Chinese leaders that America is committed to long-term fiscal discipline. In other words, he kept asking the Chinese to keep buying US bonds in order to maintain the recovery of American economy. Interestingly, [...]

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The deadline for coastal states to submit the delimitation of the maritime beyond 200 nautical miles to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was 13 May 2009. The Chinese government submitted initial information on the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles in the East China Sea to the [...]

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During the Japanese golden week, Aso Taro visited Beijingon the 29th. He met the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao and talked about various issues. However, it seems that a number of isues of Sino-Japanese relations have not reached any resolve. While Aso emphasized the Chinese military expenses, Wen criticized Aso’s donation of [...]

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On 18 March 2009, the largest naval vessel ever built for Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, a 13,950-ton Hyuga with a 195-meter full-length flight deck, was delivered to the Ministry of Defense in Yokohama. On 11 April 2009, the Hyuga opened to the public at the Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture; more than 10,000 visitors [...]

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Recently, the Chinese government approved two films (Associated Press): “City of Life and Death” which examines the Nanjing massacre through the eyes of a Chinese soldier, and “John Rabe” which is about German businessman, John Rabe, the head of the 7-sq. km. International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone (ICNSZ), who saved about 200,000 Chinese [...]

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Aso Taro believes that the United States will be required to help Japan under a bilateral security treaty if a foreign country invades the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Aso’s comments were made at a meeting on foreign affairs at the House of Representatives Budget Committee when Maehara Seiji of the Democratic Party [...]

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The paramount Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping went Tokyo and signed the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty with the Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo in October 23, 1978. The year 2008 is the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty. Unfortunately, there is no cause for celebration regarding Sino-Japanese relations. A few reasons can be summarized. There [...]

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When both Beijing and Tokyo agreed to the joint development of oil/gas field in East China Sea on June 16, the announcement caused nationalists in both countries to become excited. On one hand, the radical Chinese nationalists believe that their government sold the sovereignty of Chunxiao oil field. On the other hand, the radical Japanese [...]

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Since 2004, both Japan and China have negotiated oil/gas development issue in the East China Sea (regarding this history see chapter 9 in China and Japan at Odds: Deciphering the Perpetual Conflict for Posterity, edited by Jamese C. Hsiung, 2007). Finally, on June 18, two superpowers in the East Asian region finally settled the oil/gas [...]

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