Tensions between China and Japan over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain flared anew Saturday, a day after his release, with Beijing demanding an apology for the detention, and Tokyo refusing. Chinese authorities also continued to hold four Japanese nationals, whose detention two days ago was widely seen as a move by China to pressure Tokyo to release the captain, Zhan Qixiong. On Saturday, Japanese diplomats were allowed their first visit with the four, who are held in northern Hebei province. The two-week standoff over the captain's detention near islands claimed by both nations had seemed to end Friday when Japan gave in to Chinese pressure for his release. But no sooner had the plane carrying the captain landed in China than Beijing again ratcheted up the pressure, this time by demanding an apology and compensation. On Saturday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said, 'China of course has the right to demand the Japanese side make an apology and compensation.' In Japan, the new demands were met with anger and disbelief. Its Foreign Ministry quickly issued a statement whose curt terms departed from its usually cautious and opaque language. 'There is no territorial issue that needs to be resolved,' said the statement. 'The demand by the Chinese side for apology and compensation is completely groundless and is utterly unacceptable.' The fact that the rejection was not directly from a higher-ranking cabinet official suggests that Tokyo may hope to prevent the apology demand from growing into another diplomatic showdown. But its bluntness also suggested that Japanese officials may want to deflect domestic criticism that they appeared to have caved into Chinese pressure by releasing Zhan. 