'Purchase' of Diaoyu Islands big mistake: Spanish expert

The Japanese government made a big mistake concerning the Diaoyu Islands issue and its move could cause an unpredictable chain reaction, an international studies expert said in an article published in the El Mundo daily.

Angel Maestro, a Spanish international studies expert, said the repercussions of Japan's "islands-purchasing" move were not limited to geographical fallout but, on a much wider scale, political and economic influences.

Especially in the economic field, its impacts could be stronger, Maestro said in the article: "'Purchase' of Diaoyu Islands big mistake by Japanese government."

Historically, the small islands had been the Chinese territories until 1895 when Japan illegally seized the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands.

Maestro said that Japan, which has now become one of the world's economic powers free from wars of any kind in recent years, only finds itself in a strange situation with its "absurd expansionism" of looking at a geographically miniscule territory.

Maestro said that it is strange that Japan took such a measure to "buy what is an inseparable part of China" and that its current political leaders have not analyzed the consequences that could arise from a worsening situation.