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Japan on Friday (August 17) sent home the first group of Chinese activists detained after landing on an island claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing.

Japan and China, Asia's two largest economies, have been at odds since the activists were detained on Wednesday (August 15) after using a boat to land on the rocky, uninhabited isles known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Five activists and two Chinese television journalists who flew to Hong Kong from Okinawa arrived to a hero's welcome, while the rest of the 14-strong group were expected to head home by boat in a voyage that could take up to four days.

At Hong Kong's international airport, crowds of Chinese passengers clapped their arrival, as the men carried red China flags and a banner carrying the words: "Successful landing on Diaoyu islands. Activists show their ambition."

Japan occupied much of China during the war and colonised the Korean peninsula, the source of several feuds dogging relations with its neighbours nearly seven decades after the end of World War Two.