Two Chinese coastguard ships sailed into disputed waters off Japan-administered islands in the East China Sea Saturday, officials said, as the United States warned Beijing over increasing territorial assertiveness.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday the Senkaku Islands fall under the Japan-U.S. security treaty in a show of U.S. commitment to defending the Japanese-administered islands against any attempt by China to seize them by force.
South Korea called in the Japanese ambassador to Seoul on Tuesday to lodge a formal protest over school teaching manual revisions bolstering Tokyo's claim to a set of disputed tiny islets.
Japanese education chiefs will instruct schools to teach children that islands at the centre of disputes with China and South Korea belong unequivocally to Tokyo, the government said Tuesday.
China's declaration of an air defence identification zone that includes disputed islands is "profoundly dangerous", Japan's prime minister said Monday, as South Korea weighed into the war of words against Beijing.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday that Japan does not acknowledge China's establishment of an air defense identification zone over the Japan-controlled Senkaku islets group.
Four Chinese coastguard ships sailed through disputed waters off Tokyo-controlled islands in the East China Sea Saturday, officials said, as Japan continued a massive drill aimed at bolstering defence of its remote islands.
Beijing's behaviour in its row with Tokyo over disputed islands is jeopardising peace, Japan's defence minister said Tuesday, days after China warned a reported plan to shoot down its drones would constitute "an act of war".