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The article looks at international relations between Japan and the rest of Asia. Where 15 years ago China was merely a pariah with economic potential, having recently massacred protesters in Tiananmen Square, it now has a better international reputation and a much admired economy. In both economic and political terms, Japan is no longer alone in Asia. There have been mass demonstrations in both communist China and democratic South Korea against Japan, accusing it of refusing to face up to its past. Japan has a poor relationship with both China and South Korea. If China's economy, its regional clout and its defence spending all continue to grow at something like their current rates, then China threatens to overshadow the whole region and, more pertinently, Japan, during the next quarter-century or so. That would injure Japan's national pride but could also hurt its national interests.

The article comments on relations between China and Japan, Asia's two greatest powers. Last year, China overtook America to become Japan's biggest trading partner. Japan has been China's biggest trading partner in three of the past four years. Trade rows have virtually disappeared. The two economies are increasingly integrated. But tensions are rising again. China and Japan have been rivals for the best part of a millennium. While the two economies are complementary in terms of output, they are competitors for resources. In both China and Japan these days opinion towards each other is quite varied. Tensions between these two great powers, both fully conscious of their economic and political interests and of the weight of history, probably cannot be defused altogether for as long as the two countries' political systems remain so different, with China communist and Japan a democracy. Tensions might be defused, though, if both governments agreed to seek ways to make history, and thus nationalism, less of a flashpoint.

The article examines the response of the Chinese government to anti-Japanese protests and demonstrations. "It's a scary country," Japan's trade minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, said of China this week, following demonstrations in several Chinese cities by thousands of protesters, some of whom smashed the windows of Japanese shops and restaurants and threw stones at Japanese diplomatic buildings. The protests first turned violent in the south-western city of Chengdu on April 2nd, and erupted with particular fury in Beijing a week later. They were the biggest to take place in China since tens of thousands took to the streets across the country in 1999 in response to the bombing of China's Belgrade embassy by American aircraft during the Kosovo war. In a country where public protest is usually quickly suppressed, anti-Japanese sentiment has proved hard for the authorities to handle. The authorities' dilemma is reflected in their handling of these protests, which began as a show of opposition (on the grounds that Japan has failed to show sufficient contrition for its wartime atrocities) to Japan's campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. China's government worries that if it is seen as too weak towards Japan, or cracks down too hard, the protesters could turn against the party. In the last century, pro-democracy unrest in China was often closely linked with patriotic demonstrations. Many participants in the recent protests have been university students, a group kept under particularly close watch by the authorities since the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The nationalist genie, once unbottled, could prove hard for China to restrain.

The article discusses relations between South Korea and Japan. A long and tedious disagreement over sovereignty erupted into open anger recently after Shimane, a Japanese prefecture, passed a bill designating February 22nd as "Takeshima day", to mark the date in 1905 when Japan first claimed some volcanic islets that lie between Korea, where they are known as Tokdo, and Japan, where they are called Takeshima. Outraged South Koreans responded with a show of nationalistic fervour. The government fulminated that Japan's claim was tantamount to invasion. Despite four decades of ever-closer bilateral ties, and trade now worth almost $70 billion, Japan and South Korea have notoriously prickly relations. Although the first historical references identify the islands as belonging to an ancient Korean kingdom, after Japan's annexation of the peninsula at the beginning of the 20th century they became part of its imperial territory until the end of the second world war. Beyond wounded pride, South Korea has some economic reasons for maintaining its claim.

The author offers opinions on politics, government and foreign relations in Northeast Asia. Noting that the election of Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister of Japan means that the leaders of that country, North Korea, South Korea and China all have fathers or grandfathers who were influential public officers, the author states that these family backgrounds could result in strong opposition to Abe's nationalistic foreign policy from the other three countries.

The author offers opinions on China's foreign relations. A dispute with Japan over a collision of a Chinese fishing boat with Japanese naval ships in the East China Sea is seen as evidence of China's aggressive and at times bellicose approach to issues related to its sovereignty. It is seen as likely that this policy will result in other Asian nations cooperating to limit China's influence in the region.

The article examines how economic links are driving new diplomacy in North-East Asia. Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, met China's president, Hu Jintao, twice last year. Now Japan, China and South Korea have decided, as Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan's foreign minister, announced this week, to start holding their own three-way gathering every year. The question, of course, is whether they will find anything constructive to talk about. Although history and nationalism grab the headlines, however, there is another way to view all of this bluster. Instead of showing that closer ties are impossible, the mutual accusations and demands for apologies may be more in the nature of ritualistic display, while better relations are quietly constructed. Fast-growing trade and investment links, after all, are rapidly pulling North-East Asia's economies into closer contact.

Reports the January 23, 2000 meeting of Japanese ultra-nationalists at the Osaka International Peace Center. The ultra-nationalists' claims that the so-called Rape of Nanking during 1939, when Japanese soldiers swept through mainland China killing thousands, did not occur; Scholarly work on the subject, including estimates of the number of Chinese killed; Publication of `The Rape of Nanking,' by Iris Chang, and its contentions; Relations between Japan and China.