Japan Faces Hostility in Asian Cup Final

Japanese politicians yesterday called on Chinese football fans to put historical differences to one side when the two countries meet in the Asian Cup final in Beijing on Saturday.

The Japanese team and their supporters have been given a less-than-friendly reception since their first game of the tournament, when a chorus of boos drowned out the Japanese national anthem.

Local fans have turned up in their droves to cheer on Japan's opponents and have greeted Japanese goals with a stony silence. Some have held up banners calling on Japan to apologise for its wartime atrocities and claiming Chinese ownership of the disputed Senkaku island chain.

Officials in Japan fear that worse is to come with Saturday's politically charged final.

Hiroyuki Hosoda, Tokyo's spokesman, appealed to Chinese fans to swap nationalism for sportsmanship.

"We would really like them to deal with this calmly so that anti-Japanese sentiment does not find its way into sporting exchanges," he said.

Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, said he hoped the game would be played "in as friendly a manner as possible".

That is unlikely. The Chinese media yesterday were doing their best to create unease in the Japanese camp ahead of the match. Predicting an "explosive" final, the China Daily newspaper warned the Japanese team that they would face an intimidating atmosphere inside the 65,000 capacity Workers' Stadium.

Japanese diplomats, though, tried to strike a note of cautious optimism. "We hope that the game will promote friendship between Japan and China, but we are concerned about the Chinese public's reaction," said Keiji Ide of the Japanese embassy in Beijing.