No matter how well Japan tries, it cannot deny history

After decades of territorial dispute with China over Diaoyu Islands, Japan changed its stance in the 1990s and began denying it had any territorial dispute with China. Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has gone to the extent of saying the islands are an "integral part of Japanese territory". By doing so, Japan is ignoring reality and distorting historical facts.

Japan has adduced several reasons for its territorial rights over the Diaoyu Islands. First, it says the Diaoyu Islands were terra nullius before 1895, the year when it was forcibly incorporated into Japan. Second, Japan claims the islands were never part of Taiwan, which was ceded to it in 1895, and hence it should not renounce its claim over the islands under the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, which actually surrendered the islands to the administration of the US. Japan has been exercising administrative rights over the region since 1972 when the islands, along with Okinawa, were handed over to it by the United States. Third, it says that China has recognized the islands as part of Japan more than once.

Those are indeed lame explanations and can be easily proved wrong.