Controlling is not really a matter of point of view. It's a matter of patrolling, and sending boats away if they are not allowed in the area, etc. Japan inherited this control from the US, and China is perfectly allowed to dispute ownership of the islands. But claiming that Japan is not -at present- controlling the islands is simply not correct.

The Liancourt Rocks case is interesting, because it is so asymmetric: all the Korean people I know feel so strongly about it, but none of the Japanese people I know either know or care about it. If I were in Japan I would try to give up all claims on Dokdo as part of a wider friendship treaty with Korea, and try to prop up the relations between the two countries. But Japanese politicians are questionable at best, and Korean politicians seem to enjoy Japan bashing, so I doubt it will happen in the foreseeable future...

Japan"bought" the islands from private owners (funny right?).

I do not feel that there will ever be any real friendship between these two countries. I would compare it to polish russian relationship.

Koreans have every right to feel strong about it. Every damn right. But this is a discussion for another evening.

And replying to your comments above i was talking about the situation in asia in general. You should also know that Korea donated a war ship to Philippines. Do you think this gesture did not have anything to do with the situation in the area ? I very much doubt so.

The state of France in my hometown recently sold a former military estate to a private company to build a hotel: I don't see what's funny about it, or what it has to do with sovereignty. I don't know where you are from, but I am sure the state sometimes buy or sell lands/assets there too.

The state of Japan bought the islands to prevent promoters from exploiting them, to try to maintain the status quo with China. Obviously it was a failure, and outright buying the islands was not a good solution. But the liberal Japanese government at that time was very inexperienced: I don't think Abe for example -despite being a nationalist- would have done the same mistake.

I am from Europe, and I do not share your pessimism about Asia. The city where I'm born switched between France and Germany at least four times over the last 150 years. Hell, there is not a single border on the continent that makes sense. Peace and "friendship" between states is a political construct, built strictly out of political will, the rest is nationalist bullshit. That's true of Poland and Russia too.