TOKYO (AFP) - The newly appointed Japanese envoy to China died in a Tokyo hospital Sunday, officials said, ruling out any link to growing anti-Japan protests in Chinese cities over an escalating territorial row.
Shinichi Nishimiya, who was officially appointed on Tuesday, was taken to hospital after falling ill on a street near his home in the capital‘s fashionable Shibuya district on Thursday, according to reports.
“Ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya died in a hospital”, the foreign ministry said in a statement. The death had “nothing to do with any accident or anti-Japanese demonstrations” in China, a foreign ministry official told AFP.
Nishimiya, a career diplomat, was to replace Uichiro Niwa at a time Japan and China are at loggerheads over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Japan’s embassy in Beijing on Sunday, throwing water bottles and chanting anti-Japanese slogans, a day after angry demonstrators tried to storm the building.
Niwa raised hackles at home when he said a plan by Tokyo‘s nationalist governor to buy the islands could cause a crisis between China and Japan, jeopardising economic ties.
Japan insists there is no territorial dispute over islands it administers and calls Senkaku, but which China claims under the name Diaoyu.
Nishimiya had planned to leave for Beijing in October. The government is now considering a replacement from among retired foreign ministry officials, local reports said.
<관련 한글 기사>
출근길 쓰러진 日신임 주중대사 결국 사망
주중 대사 부임을 앞두고 쓰러진 니시미야 신이치(西宮伸一·60) 신임 대사가 16일 오전 도쿄 병원에서 숨졌다고 정부 관계자가 밝혔다.
니시미야 대사는 주중 대사로 임명된 지 이틀만인 지난 13일 아침 출근길에 자택 부근에서 쓰러져 치료를 받아왔다. 사망 원인은 아직 정확히 알려지지 않았다.
니시미야 대사는 일본이 센카쿠(尖閣:중국명 댜오위다오) 열도를 둘러싸고 중국과 대립하는 가운데 니와 우이치로(丹羽宇一郞) 주중 일본대사 후임으로 임명돼 오는 10월 부임할 예정이었다.
중국 내 인맥이 두터우며 그동안 경제 담당 외무심의관(차관급)으로 환태평양경제동반자협정(TPPA) 교섭과 러시아에서 열린 아시아태평양경제협력체(APEC) 정상회의 준비 작업 등을 맡았다.
