Japan’s governing party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), have both held leadership elections this past two weeks. Usually this news would have passed unnoticed in the rest of the world. “But the strains in Chinese-Japanese relations over claims to the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands has made the world pay closer attention,” said Bruce Stronach, dean of Temple University, Japan Campus, in an opinion piece.