Japan asked China to shelve Senkaku claim before emperor's 1992 visit

Tokyo secretly asked Beijing not to make territorial claims to the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea to avoid friction ahead of the Japanese emperor's visit to China in 1992, according to Japanese diplomatic documents declassified Wednesday.Then Japanese Ambassador to China Hiroshi Hashimoto asked influential Chinese officials to refrain from publicly speaking about the issue of the uninhabited islets and historical disputes, in line with a secret order from then Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa in April 1992, the Foreign Ministry's records showed.The visit, which had bee…READ FULL ARTICLE