By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com

Relations between Asia’s two biggest countries seem to be taking a confrontational turn on multiple fronts. On Sunday, the Japanese coast guard arrested the captain of a fishing vessel that had ventured into Japan’s territorial waters near the southwestern port of Nagasaki.

While the skipper was released several days later after paying a 300,000 Yen fine, the incident recalled the diplomatic crisis that was sparked in September 2010 after Japan detained the captain of a trawler that had gotten too close to the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, whose sovereignty is also claimed by China.

And earlier this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized Tokyo over a meeting between the Dalai Lama and several Japanese officials. The exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, who was in the Japanese capital, had met with officials including a senior adviser to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Japanese Diet member Akihisa Nagashima, senior Vice Defense Minister Shu Watanabe and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Last weekend, Japan’s Self Defense Forces conducted large-scale war games in southern Japan that were aimed at fending off a possible attack from the People’s Liberation Army navy. For the first time, military personnel and hardware normally based in Hokkaido were transferred to the south for the exercise. This tallied with a key revision of Tokyo’s defense doctrine, namely that the main threat to Japan will likely come not from Russia or North Korea but from China.

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  China-Japan ties encounter severe turbulence in advance of Noda’s upcoming visit, Dalai Lama, Nagasaki, People’s Liberation Army, Self Defense Forces, Senkaku Islands, Yoshihiko Noda