A war of words is always preferable to any other kind of war, and for what it's worth the recent controversy over the behavior of Chinese soccer fans toward the Japanese national team at the Asian Cup tournament did offer an opportunity for the governments of the countries involved to express their views on lingering anti-Japan sentiments in China. Whether or not they gained anything from the opportunity is another matter.
The Chinese authorities agreed that the behavior was out of place, but accused the Japanese media of unnecessarily politicizing the controversy ("Come on. It was just a game a soccer," cried the English language version of the People's Daily Online).
The Japanese government did almost the same thing, demanding that Beijing protect Japan's players and spectators during the final, but downplaying any political dimension to the heckling even after it lodged a formal protest with the Chinese government.