Chinese and Japanese experts on maritime and international relations huddled this week in Tokyo to discuss ways to keep the simmering tensions over the Senkaku Islands from escalating into a military clash.
Setting aside the issue of sovereignty over the East China Sea islets — called Diaoyu by China — that have been under Japan's control since 1895, the roughly 20 experts who met Monday vowed to study ways to ensure an unintended clash doesn't erupt between the two nations' patrol ships that are routinely confronting each other near the uninhabited Senkakus.
Bilateral tensions took a turn for the worse last September when Japan effectively nationalized the islets by purchasing three of them from their Saitama title-holder, whose relatives had acquired the territory from kin of the Japanese fish-processing outfit that started operations in the chain.