While the Chinese were in the mood to celebrate their Lunar New Year, Tokyo last week announced that it had taken control of a lighthouse built by a Japanese right-wing group on one of the Diaoyu Islands.
Named Diaoyutai in China and Senkaku in Japan, the disputed islands form a small chain northeast of Taiwan. Beijing, Taipei and Tokyo all claim sovereignty. The mainland government claimed that the latest move was a 'severe provocation'. Taipei also protested. But Japan has backed up its claim by putting together a 55,000-member military unit, ready to fight a 'possible Chinese invasion' of the islands.
The question is: why did the Japanese government take this action now, knowing full well that it would trigger a strong reaction from Beijing? After all, it has had de facto control of the islands over the years; the authorities in the mainland and Taipei have shown no intention of using any means other than diplomacy to back their claims.
Many reports speculate that China's rapid rise as a global power has generated fear in Japan, and that China's recent exploration of gas and oil fields in waters close to the area claimed by Japan may have caused Tokyo to take a more assertive stand. Beijing's position that Japan's southernmost Okinotori islets are merely 'rocks', and thus do not enjoy territorial status as defined by the UN, may also have angered Tokyo. This could be so, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his supporters may well have other designs in mind.
Mr Koizumi was elected in 2001 on high public expectations that he would fix the mounting domestic problems that had left Japan stagnating for a decade. But he has delivered nothing substantial. Instead, taking full advantage of the anxieties following the September 11 terrorist attacks, he pushed a series of laws through the Diet, removing all barriers for the Self-Defence Forces to operate in conflicts beyond Japan's borders. This paved the way for troops to be despatched to Iraq.
In East Asia, hawks in the Koizumi administration have spent much time exaggerating the North Korean threat, creating fear of an imminent missile attack or invasion. Mr Koizumi also chose to challenge Beijing by worshipping at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours war criminals.
