The tension on political relationships between China and Japan have aroused a storm of protest that threatens the economic relationship between the two important trade partners. This worry in the Japanese circles was confirmed by the Japanese executives’ plea to take measures to improve the situation voiced by them in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura
Mr. Machimura "received lots of urgings to settle down the rather uneasy situation between China and Japan," the spokesman of the ministry said.

One of the economic aftershocks experienced yesterday was the 3.8% drop in the Nikkei Stock Average, that could also have been conditioned by a fall in the US stock market.

Besides, Japanese executives reported the cancellation of 10,000 trips by Japanese tourists in China previously booked for the April-June period. Executives do not want to go into the country where massive anti-Japanese protests are taking place.

"The scale and intensity of the current anti-Japan tide is surely something most Japanese didn’t expect," said Kenichi Imai, a researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies in Chiba, Japan. The protests "will make Japanese companies more aware of the political risk of doing business in China," he added.