BEIJING, Sept 26, (AP): Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Sunday rejected China’s repeated demand that Tokyo apologize and offer compensation for the arrest of a Chinese boat captain whose detention caused relations between the Asian neighbors to plunge to their lowest level in years. The diplomatic back-and-forth over the weekend demonstrated that nationalistic sentiments stirred up by the incident show few signs of dissipating. Tensions have already affected business ties between the nations’ intertwined economies — the world’s second- and third-largest. “I have no intention of accepting (the demand) at all,” Kan was quoted as saying by Kyodo News agency. “It is important for both sides to act with a broader point of view.”

Kan made the remarks after China reiterated its demand for an apology from Japan late Saturday, hours after Japanese authorities released the captain whose vessel collided with Japanese patrol boats near disputed islands this month. Several major newspapers in China on Sunday carried reports about Chinese calls for an apology and compensation on their front pages, some with photos of the returned boat captain being greeted by his wife and son.

In Japan, opposition legislators lambasted the decision to release the captain as a sign that the government was caving into outside pressures. “This is tone-deaf diplomacy,” said Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition party. He said on a nationally televised news talk show Sunday that he was determined to pursue the move in parliament, including summoning officials for testimonies. But Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party, defended the government’s handling of the crisis and denied any pressure on prosecutors to release the captain.