China complains Japanese air, sea surveillance raise safety risks

JAPAN MUST APOLOGISE FOR WWII UNTIL IT IS FORGIVEN: MURAKAMI

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Defence Ministry complained on Friday that Japanese surveillance activities threatened the safety of Chinese ships and aircraft, raising the issue after Japan said earlier this week that its jet fighter scrambles had hit levels unseen since the Cold War.

Japan's air force said the increased number of scrambles were in response to Russian bombers probing its northern skies and Chinese combat aircraft intruding into its southern air space.

China's Defense Ministry, in a statement faxed to Reuters, said that Chinese air force activities accorded with both international law and norms.

"In recent years, Japanese ships and aircraft have often followed and monitored for lengthy periods and at close distances Chinese ships and aircraft, threatening the safety of the Chinese side," it said.

"This is the cause of the safety issue in the seas and air between China and Japan," the ministry added.

"China has a grip on the tracking and surveillance by Japanese ships and aircraft, and takes necessary steps to deal with it," it said, without elaborating.

Japan says the Chinese fighter incursions are concentrated in the

TOKYO (AFP) -Japan must repeatedly say sorry to China, Korea and the other countries it invaded in the 20th century until its former victims have heard the apology enough, novelist Haruki Murakami has said.

"The issue of historical understanding carries great significance, and I believe it is important that Japan makes straightforward apologies," he told Kyodo News in an interview in Tokyo earlier this month.

"I think that is all Japan can do -- apologise until the countries say: 'We don't necessarily get over it completely, but you have apologised enough. Alright, let's leave it now.'" Murakami, one of Japan's best known writers who has repeatedly been tipped as a future Nobel Literature laureate, has often chided his country for shirking responsibility for its World War II aggression.

His remarks come as the world watches what Japan's conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will say in a statement expected to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII this summer. East China Sea, close to uninhabited islets claimed by Japan and China.

Coastguard ships and fighter aircraft from both sides routinely face off around the islands, fuelling fears that an accident could spark a clash.