Japan blocks island landing as tensions rise

The Japanese government refused to let Tokyo officials land on islands also claimed by China in hopes of easing tensions following anti-Japanese protests in China, Reuters reported, quoting an unnamed government source. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara had suggested buying the islands – known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China – from their private owner, who currently leases them to the central government, and asked permission to send a team to survey the island. Those plans and the arrest of Chinese demonstrators on the islands have prompted anti-Japanese protests on the mainland, which reached new heights Monday when assailants stopped the car of Tokyo’s ambassador to Beijing and tore a Japanese flag from the vehicle. The government does not wish to upset the “peaceful and stable management and control” of the islands, the source said.