Japan's envoy to China could lose job for acknowledging Diaoyu dispute

China's president, Hu Jintao, left, meets Japan's ambassador to Beijing, Uichiro Niwa, following the earthquake that struck Japan last spring. (Photo/Xinhua)

Uichiro Niwa may lose his post as Japanese ambassador to China following accusations that his stance on the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu or Senkaku islands is too friendly to Beijing, reports Shanghai's First Financial Daily.
The Japanese government denied the rumors that Niwa will be recalled, originally circulated by Tokyo-based newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
Niwa has not been blamed for opposing a plan by Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo prefecture, to purchase the Senkakus — known as the Diaoyu islands in China — but for telling the UK's Financial Times that there is a genuine dispute between China and Japan over the island group. The uninhabited islands are controlled and administered by Japan, but both China and Taiwan claim sovereignty over them, Taiwan referring to them as the Tiaoyutais.
After Japan established official relations with China in 1972, the leaders of both nations have avoided arousing confrontation over the disputed islands by putting the issue aside. This has led the dispute to become taboo among Japanese diplomats, and the islands are usually only discussed as a domestic problem.

Read More.....................