Tokyo set to replace its ambassador in Beijing Uichiro Niwa

Reports that Uichiro Niwa, Tokyo's ambassador to Beijing, is being replaced have been welcomed among the growing number of Japanese calling on the government to be firmer with neighbouring nations over the future of the Diaoyu Islands.

Media reports indicated that Niwa, 73, formerly the chairman of the trading house Itochu Corp, will be replaced next month by Shinichi Nishiyama, presently a deputy foreign minister.

There have been suggestions that Niwa's replacement is merely a regular rotation of Japan's top diplomats, but if that is the case then the timing is poor.

Niwa has been under fire since he gave an interview in June to the Financial Times in which he expressed his opposition to Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, pushing ahead with a plan for the metropolitan government to purchase the privately owned islands that make up the archipelago, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan.

The project would "result in an extremely grave crisis in relations between Japan and China," Niwa was quoted as saying.

Ishihara called for Niwa to be fired. Pressure on the ambassador grew from all sides of the political spectrum on the grounds he had failed to clearly state the Senkaku Islands were sovereign Japanese territory.

"Niwa is an appeaser for the Chinese Communist Party," said Yoichi Shimada, a professor of international relations at Fukui Prefectural University. "He was too weak and gave in to the authorities there. His departure is good for Japan."