Kan rejects China`s demand for apology, compensation over skipper+

TOKYO, Sept. 26 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Sunday rejected China's demand that Japan apologize
and offer compensation for detaining a Chinese fishing boat captain over
collisions near the disputed Senkaku Islands.
''Senkaku is an integral part of Japanese territory,'' Kan told reporters. ''I
have no intention of accepting (the demand) at all.''
At the same time, Kan called for a calm response as relations between Japan and
China have tensed following the incident. ''It is important for both sides to
act with a broader point of view,'' he said.
On the release of the skipper, Kan said, ''I am aware that prosecutors made a
judgment based on domestic law, while thinking about the nature of the incident
comprehensively.''
In a statement released early Saturday shortly after 41-year-old Zhan Qixiong
was released and arrived in China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded an
apology and compensation.
The skipper arrived in Fuzhou in southern Fujian Province on a chartered plane
after being released a few hours earlier by Japanese prosecutors.
He had been detained for more than two weeks on suspicion of deliberately
causing his vessel to collide with a Japanese patrol boat that was pursuing the
fishing boat near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The islands are
administered by Japan but are also claimed by Beijing and Taiwan.
The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office in Okinawa Prefecture decided
Friday to release Zhan, saying it had taken into account the future of Tokyo's
relations with Beijing.
On a TV program Sunday, meanwhile, Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the
largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party, expressed readiness to ask the
Diet to summon prosecutors to testify about the Chinese skipper's release in an
extraordinary parliamentary session to be convened from Friday.
Ishihara criticized the government's response, saying, ''It's diplomatically
tone-deaf and a historic blunder.''
==Kyodo