China could gain, U.S. lose from Japan-South Korea feuds - Japan PM adviser

FILE PHOTO: Special advisor to the Japanese Prime Minister Katsuyuki Kawai speaks at a government run drug rehabilitation center, during a visit for the possible support toward anti-drug measures by the Japanese government, in Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines December 12, 2016. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

TOKYO (Reuters) - Beijing could gain and Washington lose if feuding persists between U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, a foreign policy adviser to Japan's premier said on Thursday after the latest row involving a Japanese patrol plane and South Korean warship.

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have chilled due to intensifying rows over their wartime history, including Japan's 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula, threatening regional efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear programme.