Effects of collisions near Senkakus continue a month later+

TOKYO, Oct. 3 Kyodo -
Nearly a month has passed since the collisions between a Chinese trawler and
two Japan Coast Guard patrol ships near the disputed Senkaku Islands soured
Japan-China ties, and the effects still linger as seen by cases of harassment
against Chinese living in Japan and the spate of cancellations of Japanese
school trips to China.
Chinese people living in Japan have expressed concern about worsening bilateral
relations that have spread to grass-roots levels, with a 26-year-old man who
attends graduate school at Waseda University saying he now avoids speaking
Chinese when outside.
There have been reports of threatening calls to and windows panes broken at
Chinese schools in Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki, while paint was thrown onto a
poetic tablet of former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at a park in Kyoto.
''I love China but I also have affection toward Japan,'' said a 35-year-old
woman who is a graduate student at Kyoto University and has lived in Japan for
almost eight years. ''I want them to get along well.''
Among Japanese schools that have changed the destination of planned trips by
students from China to elsewhere is a high school in Ibaraki Prefecture which
decided to send about 200 juniors to Seoul instead of Shanghai in December.
A trip for all second-year students at a high school in Shizuoka Prefecture was
also shifted to South Korea, while another high school in the prefecture
canceled its plan for a school trip to China, according to the schools'
officials.
Many of the schools that decided against going to China said they took into
consideration the safety of their students due to heightened anti-Japan
sentiment in the country, but there were also cases in which the Chinese side
canceled plans to receive the students because of deterioration in Japan-China
ties.
A high school in Gunma Prefecture said it had planned to send about 160 juniors
to Beijing for exchanges with a local high school, but was asked by it to
cancel the trip.
The Chinese boat's collisions with the Japanese patrol vessels on Sept. 7 have
led to stern reactions by Beijing, which claims the Japan-administered Senkaku
Islands, after the Coast Guard arrested the trawler's captain and sent him to
prosecutors.
Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Sunday, ''Both Japan and China
must steadily establish a mutually beneficial strategic relationship as good
neighbors and search a path toward coexistence and co-prosperity.''
Maehara made the comments to reporters in Tokyo, in response to questions about
remarks by Yukio Edano, acting secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party
of Japan, on Saturday describing China as a ''bad neighbor.''
==Kyodo
2010-10-03 23:46:57