Japanese diplomats, by contrast, appeared to spend much time in Bangkok, unsuccessfully lobbying for a resolution against North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, an issue that plays well in Japan on the eve of next month's elections but which has lost its cachet outside Japan.
Sources says the Japanese also appeared too stringent in their trade policies - eager to push their own agricultural products but less interested in buying the products of others.
"The new Chinese leadership has the capability to send a more refined message. Hu Jintao seems more elegant, and he sells China well," says a Japanese foreign ministry official. "I'm glad China is starting to engage in the world in a greater and better behaved manner. China is catching up. But it is way too early to say they have caught up. China is a huge country, with huge problems, and their growth rates are not sustainable."
Still, the expansion of China's relations in Asia, the ongoing gravitation pull of its cheap labor, and its professed desire to become a mainstream player on the world stage, are all looked at with dismay in Tokyo.
Since the turn of the 20th century, essentially, Japan has tended to hold the chief strategic influence in Asia - first as an aggressive colonial power prior to World War II in Korea and China, and later as America's chief ally in the region and the world's No. 2 economy.
Many Americans may regard World War II as a contest between Japan and the US. Yet some Asian experts describe it as one part of an ancient struggle between the Chinese and Japanese civilizations. The issue is hardly black and white, especially since China and Japan are part of a region that is rapidly integrating economically, and whose elites are quite aware of the need for greater levels of interaction.***