Former Japanese prime minister slammed as 'traitor' at home

The Japanese government has criticized former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's acknowledgment of a "territorial dispute" with China over islands in the East China Sea, with the defense minister going so far as to use the word "traitor."

On his four-day private visit to China, Hatoyama told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday, "The Japanese government says there are no territorial disputes (between the two countries). But if you look at history, there is a dispute."

The remarks contradict his own government's position of indisputable territorial sovereignty over the islands that it calls Senkaku and that China calls Diaoyu.

"If his (Hatoyama's) remarks have been politically used by China, I'm unhappy," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said on television Thursday. "At that moment, the word of 'traitor' arose in my mind."

Dangerous waters: Behind the islands dispute The day after his controversial remarks, Hatoyama, 66, and his wife visited the Nanjing Memorial, which is for the estimated 300,000 people killed in a 1937 massacre by Japanese forces.

Japan's Abe in Thailand to talk economic ties, security

 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Thailand on Thursday, part of a three-country Southeast Asian tour to consolidate business ties in one of the world's fastest-growing regions and counter growing Chinese assertiveness.
Tension remains high over China's claims on parts of the strategically vital and mineral-rich South China Sea that are also claimed by four Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, which Abe visited on Wednesday.
Abe and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra gave no indication at a news conference after talks whether any progress had been made on this issue, making only general comments about security that did not mention the South China Sea.
The Japanese premier leaves for Jakarta on Friday, where he is expected to give a major policy speech.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have been frosty since a dispute over islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, flared up last year. Violent anti-Japanese protests have been staged in Chinese cities.
"China has successfully built up its own military power but for what? We celebrate China's economic growth but it's not a good idea to threaten others or urge others by coercion or intimidation," Yutaka Yokoi, a Japanese foreign ministry official, told Reuters in Bangkok.
Having taken on the role of mediator in the multi-layered South China Sea disputes, Thailand has said it would listen to what Japan has to say but would also take into consideration the views of other countries involved.

Japan Explores War Scenarios with China

As Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party national defense task force announced on Jan. 8 that it would increase the nation’s defense budget by more than 100 billion yen ($1.15 billion), three of five scenarios explored by the defense ministry recently involve the Self-Defense Forces squaring off against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

While contingencies involving North Korea’s ballistic missiles and Russia were among the scenarios the defense ministry explored, the top three all involved a crisis in the East China Sea. The first scenarioexamined a war between China and Japan over the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. Earlier on Tuesday Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo for the first time since Shinzo Abe was sworn in as prime minister to protest the continued presence of official Chinese ships in waters around the islets, which are claimed by Japan, Taiwan and China.

The second scenario, meanwhile, expands on a Senkaku contingency and looks at a widening war involving PLA attempts to seize the Ishigaki and Miyako Islands west of northern Taiwan.