Many people in Asia have been marking the Lunar New Year, when millions of people
travel to be with their families.
The occasion may give people in Japan and
China some respite from the current tension between the two nations.
The Lunar
New Year is marked across Asia, particularly by the ethnic Chinese, with traditional
dances and lots of food.
There are even some festivities in Japan, where it
happens to be a public holiday weekend this year.
But there's no rest for the
crews Japan Coast Guard and Chinese patrol ships facing off against each other in
waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands.
Both governments have now accused
the other of lying over an incident last month in which a Chinese warship allegedly
switched on a weapons-targetting radar and aimed it at a Japanese destroyer.
Japan's
defence minister said it likely constituted a "threat of force" as defined by the
United Nations.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the world needs to understand
what China is up to.
Beijing insists the Senkaku islands are rightfully Chinese
territory, and in the past five months has ratcheted up pressure on Japan to abandon
them.
But there have been limits to China's actions: it has stopped short of
sending military vessels or aircraft to the islands.
And, domestically, authorities
have tried to calm nationalist anti-Japan sentiment: in the run-up to the Lunar New
Year holiday, they reportedly ordered that shops cease selling one brand of firework.
That firework's name is "Nuke Tokyo."