Prime Minister Naoto Kan should be firm in ending the diplomatic dispute over the Senkaku Islands and stabilize China-Japan relations now that he has retained control of the Democratic Party of Japan, Chinese state media said Wednesday.
Chinese media outlets had been regarding Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain partly as taking a tough line to win votes before Tuesday's DPJ election.
Now that the "previous pressures to woo voters" is gone, the English-language Global Times said in an editorial, "it will be wise for Kan to become resolute in a swift decision to release the captain of a Chinese fishing boat and end the latest diplomatic crisis over the Diaoyu Islands," as the islands are called in China.