Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan reiterated that the Japanese government would never negotiate with China to postpone a decision on the territorial dispute over the Senkaku group in the East China Sea.
Japan controls the islands, they claim, China and Taiwan.
Esihide Suga said this after Monday, one of his predecessors - Hiromu Nonaka - said in Beijing that Japan and China have agreed on the normalization of relations in 1972, set aside the decision of the dispute about the Senkaku Islands.
Responding to questions from reporters after a meeting with a senior representative of the Communist Party of China, Nonaka said he learned from the then Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei of his agreement with the Chinese leader Zhou Enlai deferred the dispute. Suga told reporters on Tuesday that Nonaka - a retired politician, and that the government would not comment on statements of a private individual.
Suga reiterated the government's position, according to which the Senkaku Islands belong to Japan unconditionally, both historically and based on international law.
He said that the Japanese government would never negotiate with China to postpone the solution of this question, or stick to the status quo. According to him, Japan believes that in general there is no territorial dispute, the decision of which must be postponed.
Source: NHK
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