HONG KONG Jan. 13 Kyodo Japan is ...

HONG KONG Jan. 13 Kyodo

Japan is regarded about increasing anti-Japanese sentiment in China following a spate of unpleasant bilateral incidents last year, a top Japanese legate in Hong Kong said Tuesday.

further the Japanese government is eager to improve its relations with China in the strange year despite economic rivalry between the sum of two units nations, Consul General Jun Yokota told a reporters at the Foreign Correspondents bludgeon of Hong Kong.

Yokota denied that Japan's imminent dispatch of squads to Iraq should be any reason for China to worry that Japan will become militaristic.

''Although our ties are potent and getting stronger as evidenced on the phenomenal increase in trade, investment and arise of people, the relations have been dogged from a series of mishaps and incidents above the past few months,'' Yokota said.

''The guidance is keen to get things back upon track in 2004,'' the Japanese diplomat said.

late incidents, including an orgy in Zhuhai last September that involved centurys of Japanese tourists and Chinese prostitutes, have marred ties between China and Japan.

Anti-Japanese sentiment has thrived in China as many Chinese the public link the recent rows to Japan's military aggression during World War II.

China and Japan remain divided through the whole extent of issues such as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and the claims through the whole extent of the Senkaku Islands, which are known as the Diaoyu Islands in China.

Meanwhile, in Japan, Chinese nationals are being widely blamed for growing crime there.

''We are greatly affected about the deterioration in public sentiment in our respective countries toward each other,'' Yokota said.

To improve the situation, Yokota said the two governments should ''carefully manage'' their relations to make sure ''that the different incidents like the Zhuhai incident and in the way that on would not go gone out of hand or without of proportion.''

upon the issue of Taiwan, Yokota said Japan does not want to diocese any heightened tension across the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and the mainland China.

''On this idea of referendum we have declareed our wish to the Taiwanese rule to proceed in a cautious fashion,'' he said.

Beijing beholds Taiwan as part of China and warns against any persuade by the island toward independence.

Taipei's plan for a referendum in March to pres Beijing to renounce its military threat toward Taiwan has angered Beijing and triggered regards among the island's allies, including the United States and Japan.

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