Japan to Send Foreign Ministry Emissary to China

W460

Japan will send its top foreign affairs bureaucrat to China on Monday for a two-day visit, in a move aimed at cooling the diplomatic temperature in a fiery territorial dispute, officials said.

Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai, the most senior unelected man in the ministry, will meet his Chinese counterpart "to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues based on the current situation," a ministry official said.

The announcement came a day after China said it was postponing long-planned events marking the 40th anniversary of ties and as the Japanese coastguard said three Chinese government ships were in waters around the disputed island chain.

Asia's two largest economies have wrangled about the islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China -- since the 1970s, but the row flared up again in August after pro-China activists landed on one of them.

Tensions escalated dramatically after the Japanese government subsequently bought three of the islands from their private owners earlier this month.

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