An expert on Asian security affairs has urged Japan and China to deepen dialogue in a concerted effort to heal fraught relations.

The Senkaku territorial row is "a clear indicator of the structural transformation between the two countries" but also a result of China's "broader rise in the international system," said Tai Ming Cheung, associate professor and director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego.

The isle dispute "is definitely not accidental. It's very difficult right now to see how the countries can resolve this issue without it becoming a much more serious crisis and the potential for a military conflict," Cheung said. "Right now, it's a theater. We refuse to find ways to compromise because of the domestic audiences."