Amid rising tensions with China, Japan's ambassador to the United States said Thursday that the two countries can resolve their differences in a peaceful manner.
"We still think China is our friend," Kenichiro Sasae said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board.
China and Japan have tangled over the Senkaku Islands, which China calls the Diaoyu Islands, near significant fishing and petroleum resources.
China also wants Japan to apologize for its conduct during World War II, when Imperial Japan occupied Chinese territory, caused the deaths of millions of Chinese and used thousands of Chinese women as consorts to its military personnel.
Sasae said China has also sent its navy to islands claimed by other Asian nations, including Vietnam, but labeled these conflicts as minor and manageable and outweighed by the positive interactions between Japanese and Chinese people.
"There are huge exchanges between Japan and Chinese cultures," Sasae said. "There are a lot of Chinese tourists coming to Japan despite these political tensions."
China is North Korea's strongest ally, controls its energy supplies and has established lines of communications with the hermit nation, which has nuclear weapons and often threatens its neighbors, including Japan.
"That's why we are suggesting and advising China to do more over North Korea," Sasae said. China has tried to influence its ally, he acknowledged, "but the question is is that working or is that sufficient."
Concerns about North Korea will continue to be high on the agenda in relations between Japan and China and with the United States and China, he said.
Japan, which accepted a pacifist constitution after its defeat in World War II, reinterpreted its constitution this summer to allow its armed forces to engage in "collective defense" operations, meaning Japan can go into combat to defend allies, not only itself.
The move, seen widely as a response to a more assertive Chinese navy plying the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea, allows Japan to defend the United States if necessary, Sasae said. It also would allow Japan to join peacekeeping operations around the world and reduce Japan's dependence on the United States, he said.
In the past, "sometimes we were not really trying to address (defense) issues looking at the reality of the region and solely depended upon the U.S. forces, and that would not be the right thing," he said.
Japanese ambassador optimistic on relations with China
