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Japan to release Chinese prisoner
Japan was to release a Chinese trawler captain on Friday at the heart of a fierce territorial row with China that has threatened ties between Asia's two biggest and increasingly interdependent economies.
Japan was to release a Chinese trawler captain on Friday at the heart of a fierce territorial row with China that has threatened ties between Asia's two biggest and increasingly interdependent economies.
A prosecutor from Naha city on Japan's southern Okinawa island said the decision to release the captain, whose trawler collided this month with two Japanese patrol boats in waters near islands both sides claim, reflected consideration for Sino-Japanese ties.
"It is a fact that there was the possibility that Japan-China relations might worsen or that there were signs of that happening," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told a news conference. "Our ties are important and both sides must work to enhance our strategic and mutually beneficial relations."
