Japan's new China envoy in ICU after surgery - report

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

TOKYO - The newly appointed Japanese ambassador to China was in intensive care Friday following surgery after he collapsed unconscious in Tokyo, a report said.

Shinichi Nishimiya, who was officially appointed on Tuesday, was taken to hospital after falling ill on the street near his home in the capital's fashionable Shibuya district on Thursday.

The Sankei Shimbun daily said the ambassador was in an intensive care unit following surgery. It quoted unnamed police sources but did not specify the nature of the treatment.

A foreign ministry official refused to confirm the report, saying only: "He is hospitalized due to his bad condition".

Nishimiya, a career diplomat, replaces Uichiro Niwa at a time Japan and China are at loggerheads over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea.

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, jeopardizing 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, but the government is now considering various options, including a replacement, if he does not recover quickly, the Sankei reported.

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