Japan sends top foreign official to China in a bid to ease diplomatic tensions

Amid rising bilateral tensions, Japan has quietly dispatched one of its top Foreign Ministry officials to China, to try and ease the hostilities, following the political fallout between Tokyo and Beijing after the two Asian powers were engaged in a series of brief military and diplomatic confrontations.

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Masaaki Kanai, Director-General of Japan's Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, is expected to meet Liu Jinsong, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Department, according to Japanese media.

The visit comes after both nations briefly caught themselves in a series of brief military-diplomatic scuffles.