The cancelled seats had been booked for group tours. Of them, about 12,000 were for flights to China and the rest to Japan.

ANA's rival Japan Airlines said on Monday that about 15,500 seats reserved for group tours had been cancelled on its Japan-China flights for the three months to November.

"I understand that demand for routes which attract many tourists will be tough for the time being," ANA president Shinichiro Ito said. "But cargo, which accounts for a high ratio in our revenue, has not been affected much."

Japan demands China protect its citizens in island spat
United Nations (AFP) Sept 26, 2012 - Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda insisted Wednesday there could be no compromise with China on the ownership of a disputed island chain and denounced attacks on Japanese interests.

Speaking to reporters at the UN General Assembly in New York, Noda said China had misunderstood the issues at stake and demanded an end to attacks on Japanese citizens and business interests in China by nationalist protesters.

"So far as the Senkaku islands are concerned, they are an integral part of our territory in the light of history and of international law," Noda said, referring to an archipelago in the East China Sea that China knows as Diaoyu.

"It is very clear and there are no territorial issues as such. Therefore there cannot be any compromise that could mean any setback from this basic position. I have to make that very clear," he told reporters.

The dispute erupted this month in an angry war of words between Beijing and Tokyo after the Japanese government bought up the previously privately-held islands, but Noda insisted this move had been misinterpreted.

"Part of the Senkaku islands that was held by a private citizen was transferred to governmental possession in order to ensure the stable management of it," he said, according to an official translation.

"It is not a new acquisition but it was held under the private ownership of a Japanese citizen and was a transfer of ownership within Japanese law," he said, adding: "We have explained this to China at length."

"But it seems that China has yet to understand that and because of that lack of understanding there has been an attack or acts of violence and destruction against Japanese citizens and property there," he complained.

"And we have conveyed clearly that in any circumstances violence is not to be condoned, and we strongly demanded China accord protection to Japanese citizens and property there," he added.

The attacks on Japanese factories and businesses have ostensibly been carried out spontaneously by patriotic crowds, but such protests are usually tightly policed in China, leading to suspicions of official collusion.

Japanese firms in China have been targeted in recent weeks by demonstrators angered by the row over the Japan-held Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu, forcing some to shut down.

Philippine Trade Undersecretary Cristino Panlilio said the government was courting 15 of these companies with the best potential for relocating some of their operations from China to the Philippines.

"We don't want to say we want to take advantage of the misery of others but we're trying to be practical and help the Japanese," Panlilio told reporters.

"We have marching orders to our trade attaches to approach these Japanese companies, both in China and Japan."

He declined to name the companies that were being approached.

To attract the Japanese, Panlilio said the government was offering tax incentives while promoting a well educated population, economic stability and President Benigno Aquino's efforts to stamp out corruption.

He said said that without the diplomatic tensions, rising labour costs in China were already making the Philippines more attractive for Japanese companies.

Panlilio said the Philippines undertook similar sales pitches in Thailand and Japan last year after those countries suffered natural disasters that forced manufacturers there to halt production.

He said those efforts had paid dividends with companies such as Toshiba, Canon, Toyota and Hitachi increasing their presence in the Philippines.

The Philippines is trying to reverse a trend that has seen its manufacturing sector struggle to remain competitive with China in recent years.

The manufacturing sector made up 17 percent of the Philippines' total economy in 2011, down from 26 percent in 1980, according to government data.

Taiwan eyes marine park in East China Sea
Taipei (AFP) Sept 26, 2012 - Taiwan will push ahead with plans to set up a national marine park near disputed islands in the East China Sea also claimed by Japan and China, a top official said Wednesday.

Interior Minister Lee Hong-yuan made the remarks in parliament, one day after dozens of Taiwanese boats entered territorial waters around the disputed islands to press Taipei's claim.

"The Ministry of the Interior will keep working on the establishment of the planned marine national park," Lee told legislators, without giving details.

The planned national park will cover three Taiwan-held islets -- Pengjia, Mianhua and Huaping and surrounding waters, measuring some 750 square kilometres (300 square miles), according to authorities.

Lee said during a recent visit to Pengjia islet, which lies about 140 kilometres (90 miles) west of the disputed islands known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, that he hoped the park could be set up soon.

His comments came as he reiterated Taipei's claim to the Diaoyu islands and said the government would would step up efforts to protect its fishermen working in the disputed waters.

"We will protect the fishermen more actively to help them fight for their rights in Diaoyu islands. There is no doubt that the (islands') sovereignty is ours," Lee said. "We will also seek consensus with Japan and China."

The uninhabited but strategically positioned archipelago is administered by Japan and has long been at the centre of a bitter territorial row between Japan and China.

Dozens of Taiwanese fishing boats escorted by coastguard vessels traded water cannon fire with Japanese vessels around the disputed islands and returned to Taiwan late Tuesday to a hero's welcome.