Japan arrives Senkaku islands despite china’s warning

Japan arrives Senkaku islands despite china’s warning

At least 10 Japanese nationalist activists have landed on a group of disputed Senkaku islands called Diaoyu in China amid an escalating territorial row with Beijing.

They activists raised Japanese flag when they landed emulating the pro-China activists who had made the same gesture during their trip.

"I want to show the international community that these islands are ours. It is Japan's future at stake." Kenichi Kojima one of the activists said.

Chinese sovereignty
China has warned that the expedition would undermine its territorial sovereignty.

"Any unilateral action taken by Japan on the Diaoyu Islands is illegal and invalid," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gan.

Earlier this week, pro-Chinese activists sailed to the disputed island chain from Hong Kong in a protest aimed at promoting Chinese sovereignty.

Territorial claim
Rows over the disputed islands have caused Sino-Japanese ties to freeze in the past.
In September 2010, relations plummeted after the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain near the islands.

The captain was accused of ramming two Japanese patrol vessels in the area but Japan eventually dropped the charges against him.

China claims the islands have been a part of its territory since ancient times, but Japan says it took control of the archipelago in the late 1890s after making sure they were uninhabited.

Pickles kill six in Japan
In a separate development, at least six people have died in Japan and about 100 others have become ill after eating contaminated pickles, health officials say.

Most of the victims were elderly women in nursing homes on the island of Hokkaido but one was a girl of four.

It is believed to be the deadliest mass outbreak of food poisoning in the country for 10 years.

The local government blamed locally produced pickled Chinese cabbage, which got contaminated with E. Coli bacteria.

Pickled Chinese cabbage is a popular side-dish in Japan and the deaths have caused shock.

Past cases of food poisoning have generally involved meat or seafood.

BBC/Ibisaki/Hajia Sani