If Japan is worried about China's growing economic and military clout, its Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Koro Bessho did not show it.

In an exclusive interview with The Nation's editor-in-chief Suthichai Yoon over the weekend, he reiterated that his country did not see Beijing as a threat, but rather as a big neighbour who's taking a more assertive role in the region. But this big neighbour and everyone around would be better off if there was a greater degree of transparency in crucial foreign policies.

"Saying that a problem or conflict exists is very different from saying that someone is a threat. I don't think China bullies us, but I would agree that the Chinese are getting to be more assertive. And that is something that the international community has recognised and has asked China to play a role (accordingly) - an important role that they can perform," he said.

The Japanese deputy minister was in Bangkok last week and met Sihasak Phuangketkeow, the permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry. The trip followed up on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's official visit to Japan in March, when several important agreements were reached.

Bessho said Japan was aware of but not alarmed over developments in China including its military profile in the region.

"We certainly do not see China as a threat. What we are saying is that we would like China to be more transparent in their policies and their relationship with their policies, and the actual (scale) of their military build-up."

A Beijing-Tokyo maritime row erupted when Japan detained 14 Chinese nationals from Hong Kong who landed on the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands on August 15, in hope of asserting Chinese sovereignty. After detaining them, Japanese authorities quickly deported them. The incident ignited nationalistic sentiment across China.

"Our position is that there is no territorial dispute. We feel that we don't want the differences in our views or positions on this particular issue to overshadow the overall relationship," Bessho said.

"We have no reason to believe that the Hong Kong fishermen were backed by the Chinese government to trespass on Japanese territory," he said.

As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, their leaders have agreed to strengthen a relationship that is mutually beneficial based on common strategic interests.

However, there have been better days in the bilateral ties.

"Between the mid-1980s and now, we do see the decline of the warm feelings that we had enjoyed in the 1980s," he said.

He was quick to add that Japan's nationalistic sentiment had other factors including the bursting of the bubble in the 1990s, which coincided with the declining birth-rate, which aggravated the situation of an ageing society, and, of course, the great natural disaster (tsunami) last year.

"People are feeling a little less optimistic about the future. I think people are beginning to look inward. What we want to do is to be more outward-looking," he said.

Asked about the US rebalancing strategy in the Asia-Pacific, he said: "We all welcome that, including China, including Southeast Asia and of course Japan.

"Their [the Americans'] interest is important for us and Asean countries. We want to secure stability in this region and I think it's the same for China, which is so essential for economic development," he said.

In terms of Asean+3 (10 Asean countries plus China, Japan and South Korea), he said the plus three nations had played a very important role and achieved some important cooperative targets.

"What Japan wants to do is to come up in the end with a free-trade agreement for all [the] Asia-Pacific. That may be the ultimate goal," he said.

"We have enough experience, technology and strong partnership with our friends. We can play a role that could help build and cement a solid and stable platform from which we can all benefit," he said.

In regard to North Korea's missile programme, he said: "What we would like to see is for North Korea to show us that we can believe in them and that we can establish a relationship of trust.

"The starting point is for them to honour their past promise. I think that'll be the most important point," he said.

Asked what might be Japan's biggest concern from a foreign policy viewpoint, he said: "North Korea certainly is considered a very important issue. But in order to deal with this issue and any other flash point, I think it's important to (solidify) a regional structure that can deal with them (peacefully).

"As for the structure we already have in hand, what we want to do is make sure it can actually function."

Forensic results will today show which vehicle fired the first shot during the road-rage drama two weeks ago in Khao Yai that killed an MP's son, police said yesterday. About 70 per cent of the evidence to draw a conclusion had been collected, Pol Col Bunsong Attaworranant said yesterday.

Mun Phoolsab, 40, who surrendered on Thursday, and four passengers in the SUV driven by Farut Thaiset, the son of Chart Thai Pattana Party MP Chada, have claimed the other side opened fire first.

Police may need to perform a post-mortem on Farut, with approval from Chada, to seek extra trajectory details.

Mun told police that while he was driving his pickup, he returned fire with three shots at the SUV, but Farut took one fatal shot to his left temple and the SUV showed one bullet hole, Bunsong said.

Besides who shot first, police are also working on two other critical questions - if there was another person in Mun's pickup, as the four SUV passengers have insisted, and where Mun's handgun was.

The suspect, a construction contractor from Ratchaburi, said he threw it a long way from the scene in Nakhon Ratchasima's Pak Chong district. He has been charged with premeditated murder, possessing and carrying a handgun and ammunition without a permit and discharging a firearm without good cause.

Police have not found the murder weapon despite a thorough search of the area where Mun said he disposed of it, so Mun will be questioned again today.

Chada's attorney Suppharuek Iamla-or said exhuming Farut's corpse was "extremely difficult" because it was against Farut's Muslim religion. "If police insist on the autopsy, talks between the officers and the Thaiset family will be held to discuss the issue. Personally I think the autopsy is not needed as the suspect has admitted to shooting at the SUV," he said.

Police only needed to recover the murder weapon, he said. Neither he nor the Thaiset family was informed of a possibly autopsy on Farut's body, he said.

A police source, citing crime scene results, said spent cartridges from guns carried by the SUV occupants were found first along the stretch of road where both vehicles were travelling together, while a cartridge fired from the supposed handgun of Mun was found where the SUV tipped over and rammed a pole.

"The first spent cartridges should signify that people in the SUV opened fire, and the last cartridge should signify that the suspect was the last to shoot."

SYDNEY: Babies still too small to speak know how to make jokes and form friendships, say researchers at an Australian university who have spent two years filming the behaviour of young children.

Academics at Charles Sturt University are studying how children interact with other infants while in childcare using footage obtained from tiny cameras strapped to their heads.

The study affords a "baby's eye view" of the world in which even simple objects such as spoons appear oversized, said Jennifer Sumsion, foundation professor of early childhood at the university.

But it also shows that children aged from six months to 18 months use sophisticated but subtle non-verbal means to make friends and make each other laugh.

"We were very, very surprised to see just how sophisticated they were in terms of their social skills, their helping skills, in making sure they were inviting other children to be part of their group," Sumsion told AFP.

Sumsion said babies interacted with each other by making eye contact and with hand gestures and humour.

They used "little social games that you wouldn't necessarily see unless you were looking very closely", she said.

Examples of this included children pretending to hand another child a toy, only to snatch it away at the last minute, or babies sitting close to each other in highchairs playfully switching their drink bottles around.

In another instance caught on camera, a one-year-old girl tried to comfort a baby when she was frightened by gently placing a piece of see-through fabric over her so she could see out but feel protected.

The researchers, who analysed the baby-cam footage alongside other video shot of the children at the same time, did not force the babies to wear the cameras and they were only attached for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

They hope the research will shed light on the secret world of babies and their experience in childcare.

"What surprised us though was the games that they were playing with each other, even at that age. It's really very positive to see," Sumsion said.

- AFP/fa

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