Japan's diplomacy seeks to isolate China(2)

Kishida's trip schedule was released just one day after Tokyo on Monday said Abe may travel to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia for the leader's first state visit.

The prime minister's planned visit "serves as a collaboration" with his foreign minister's Southeast Asian trip in boosting Tokyo's overall diplomacy in Asia, Japan's newspaper Mainichi Shimbun commented on Tuesday.

Abe turned to Southeast Asia in haste after Washington made clear that US President Barack Obama, who will be inaugurated to a second four-year term of office later this month, didn't have time to meet with Abe in January.

The Abe Cabinet's top priority for foreign ties is boosting the traditional US-Japan alliance. Meanwhile, Tokyo and Washington "have been utilizing each other in the region as part of Washington's pivot-to-Asia strategy," Yang Baoyun said.

Japan's Asahi Television warned that things may not go as expected by the prime minister.

Although the diplomatic debut of Abe's second term as the top leader geographically steers clear of China, it is still "centering around China" as its diplomatic core in the region, said Liu Jiangyong, an expert on Japanese studies and the deputy dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University.

"Tokyo knows that it cannot confront Beijing directly, and that's why it depends on its alliance with the US while seeking any regional players that it can collaborate with, including Australia and some ASEAN countries," Liu said.