Japan shelves quake aid plan after China concern

Japan has shelved plans for its military to fly tents and blankets to China in the aftermath of the devastating May 12 earthquake on concerns in China over the move, a senior government official said on Friday.

Japanese media said on Thursday the military would deliver assistance in what would be its first deployment to China since the end of World War Two and a step in strengthening Sino-Japanese ties, long troubled by their wartime past.

But Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said the idea, floated after Japan received a request from China for assistance, had been put off.

"As there were concerns in China, Japan and China had discussions and decided to shelve the idea of Self-Defense Forces planes providing transport," Machimura told a news conference. Japan refers to its military as Self-Defense Forces.

Aid would be delivered by chartered commercial planes instead, Machimura said.

Japanese newspapers cited Beijing's concern after public criticism over the move, including messages on Chinese Internet sites linking Tokyo's military with its wartime troops.

Japan sent rescue teams and a medical team to the devastated region shortly after the May 12 earthquake, and Japanese officials said China had asked for military assistance earlier this week.

Bilateral ties chilled during former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's 2001-2006 term over his visits to Yasukuni shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism because it honors some convicted war criminals along with the country's war dead.

Relations have since improved, but many Chinese harbor resentment over Japan's 1931-45 military aggression in China.