Abe continues to send mixed messages

In the short-term, Abe wooed the top leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in a bid to secure votes from these 14 nations and one territory, as Japan enters next year's autumn election to choose new nonpermanent members of the council.

"Obviously Japan has the financial clout to write some pretty big cheques in Latin America and this will help pave the way for Japanese businesses to expand projects in the region and aid an increase in imports to Japan of vital resources," Japanese Affairs commentator Kaoru Imori told Xinhua.

"But, as a senior aide to Abe was quoted as saying on the tour, the main purpose of Abe's visit was to secure votes for Japan as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council, with an aim to becoming a permanent member with more vetoing powers and overall clout, which is in line with Abe's wide-reaching, global military agenda," said Imori.

Imori pointed to Abe and Rousseff's joint declaration as being a tacit frown on China's claims on the East and South China Sea and a move that stood contrary to Japan's continued bid to hold summit talks with China to improve soured ties.

"If Abe and Japan are serious about improving ties with China, then declarations that openly and somewhat unfoundedly criticize China for actions that were triggered by Japan, will serve no purpose," Imori said.

"At best the outcome would be that the standoff between Tokyo and Beijing, over territorial issues and differing perceptions of history continues, with the two countries agreeing to just merely tolerate each other, which is essentially where we are now."

"We've seen this time and time again with Abe and his government. Saying they want to improve diplomatic relations, but acting in a manner that is completely opposite," he added.

One of the burning points at the heart of the decline of ties between Tokyo and Beijing has been the former's insistence that there is no territorial dispute with China concerning the Diaoyu Islands, with the government's stance being that they are an inherent part of Japan's territory.

If Japan were serious about mending ties with China, then the timing of Japan opting to name a cluster of five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by China is truly bizarre, analysts here have attested.

The five islands named by Japan on Friday, which quickly drew the ire of Beijing who blasted the move as being "illegal and invalid" and infringing on China's territorial sovereignty, were among 158 islands that Japan's maritime policy department named.

"The only way for Japan to gain the ear of China in any scenario approaching a summit with China, is for Japan to take a more congenial approach to issues that have caused relations to sour in recent years," said McNeil.

"Such moves, including visits by Abe and senior ministers to Yasukuni (shrine), Abe's recent military recasting, reopening the Kono Statement, publicly denouncing China's air and sea activity and the naming of these islands, along with the timing of such actions, can only be interpreted as truculent, and, certainly not the actions of a leader who's truly looking to reestablish amiable ties with one of its closest neighbors," he said.