China and Taiwan criticised Japan for giving Japanese names to disputed islands in the East China Sea claimed by all three parties in a long-running diplomatic row.
China and Japan have a lengthy dispute over an uninhabited but strategically coveted island chain known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese.
Taiwan also claims the islands and local activists have tried to sail to the disputed area to press Taipei's claim.
China's foreign ministry on Saturday said moves by Japan to rename scores of islands in the chain was "illegal and invalid", according to a statement posted on the ministry's website.
"No matter what names Japan has given to the islands affiliated to Diaoyu island, it will not change the fact that these islands belong to China," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in the statement.
China's State Oceanic Administration has released names in Chinese for the islands in the chain, which it put at 70, the official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.
Separately, Taiwan protested to Japan for renaming four islets in the contested chain and unveiling the names on Friday.
Saitama and Okayama prefectural police last week arrested the manager of an online porn DVD operation that specialized in films featuring children. (Tokyo Reporter)
A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today )
China's television regulator has ordered a crackdown on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state media said on Friday, following viewer complaints about ludicrous storylines. (Reuters )
Police said Friday they have found four dead bodies in an apartment in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, in what is believed to have been a family murder-suicide. (Japan Today )
Shukan Post (May 24) conveys the difficulties experienced by other parts of the adult-entertainment biz in servicing customers from the communist nation.
A deri heru (“delivery health”) call-girl tells the tabloid that she is often requested to arrive at major hotels in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro entertainment areas of Tokyo by Chinese visitors. (Tokyo Reporter)