TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese and Chinese leaders said they wanted to improve strained ties, but both stressed their claims to islands at the heart of a bitter row, suggesting tensions between Asia’s top two economies were far from over.

The prime ministers of Japan and China met on Monday for the first time since a feud over a collision near disputed islands in the East China Sea last month soured ties, and agreed to start high-level talks to repair relations.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Support for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government has slid to around 50 percent due to voter dissatisfaction with Tokyo’s handling of a bitter territorial feud with Beijing, newspaper polls showed on Monday.

Ties between the world’s two biggest economies deteriorated sharply after Japan’s Coast Guard detained a Chinese trawler skipper whose boat collided last month with two patrol ships near islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by both countries.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said good ties with China are vital but voiced concern about Beijing’s military buildup and stepped-up regional maritime activities, as tensions linger between Asia’s two top economies.

Tokyo and Beijing became embroiled in a bitter feud after Japan’s Coast Guard detained a Chinese trawler skipper whose boat collided with two of its patrol ships last month near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that both sides claim.

TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister warned on
Friday that the country’s fiscal situation was unsustainable
given its huge public debt, and called for multiparty tax reform
talks as he struggles with a fragile economy and a divided
parliament.

Naoto Kan also repeated his resolve to curb a rise in the yen
that threatens to derail Japan’s export-led economic recovery,
urged the central bank to do more to fight deflation, and
expressed hope that opposition parties would join in talks on a
extra budget he wants to enact soon. [ID:nTKU106284]

TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister warned on
Friday that the country’s fiscal situation was unsustainable
given its huge public debt, and called for multiparty tax reform
talks as he struggles with a fragile economy and a divided
parliament.

Naoto Kan also repeated his resolve to curb a rise in the yen
that threatens to derail Japan’s export-led economic recovery,
urged the central bank to do more to fight deflation, and
expressed hope that opposition parties would join in talks on a
extra budget he wants to enact soon. [ID:nTKU106284]

TOKYO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Japan intervened in foreign
exchange markets this month for the first time in more than six
years, selling as much as 1.86 trillion yen ($22.20 billion) to
pull the currency back from a 15-year high against the dollar.

The estimate is based on Bank of Japan money market data and
if correct means the intervention on Sept. 15 was a record amount
for a single day of official yen selling.

BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) – China told Japan on Tuesday to stop interfering with Chinese fishery protection vessels operating in seas claimed by both countries that are at the centre of a deepening diplomatic row between the two.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry has repeatedly complained to China about the presence of two Chinese fishery patrol boats which it says have been in the area near the disputed islands in the East China Seas since Friday.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s prime minister will attend an Asia-Europe summit next week where his Chinese counterpart will also be present, Japan’s top spokesman said on Tuesday, as Tokyo struggles to repair worsening ties with Beijing.

Japan’s detention of a Chinese trawler captain, whose fishing boat collided with two Japanese coastguard ships, has sparked renewed tensions between Beijing and Tokyo, highlighting the fragility of relations between Asia’s biggest economies.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan on Friday was set to release a Chinese trawler captain 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 they had decided to free the Chinese boat captain, whose trawler collided this month with two Japanese patrol boats in waters near islands both sides claim, sparking a bitter row.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan intervened in foreign exchange markets this week for the first time in more than six years, selling as much as 1.86 trillion yen (13.9 billion pounds) to pull the currency back from a 15-year high against the dollar.

The estimate is based on Bank of Japan money market data and if correct means the intervention on Wednesday was a record amount for a single day of official yen selling.