Tokyo ( CNN ) -- Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan reorganized his cabinet ministers on Monday , bringing in a woman with strong links to China amid a smoldering dispute between the two nations over a group of remote islands . Noda named Makiko Tanaka , whose father oversaw the normalization of relations with China 40 years ago , as education minister -- one of string of new appointments . Tanaka , who served as foreign minister more than 10 years ago under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi , returns to the cabinet as Noda tries to manage the fallout from the clash with Beijing over the disputed islands in the East China Sea . Dangerous waters : Behind the islands dispute . Japan controls and administers the islands , but China says they are an integral part of its territory that Tokyo `` stole '' in the 19th century . The islands are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese . The Japanese government 's announcement last month of the acquisition of several of the disputed islands from a Japanese family has heightened tensions between the two countries . Violent anti-Japanese protests have taken place in Chinese cities , and economic ties between Asia 's two largest economies have started to sour . Meanwhile , patrol vessels from the two countries have been frequently locked in tense games of cat and mouse in the waters around the islands after China sent a flotilla of ships to the area . Chinese passion , fury fuels anti-Japan attacks . The appointment Monday of Tanaka to the cabinet may be interpreted as an effort to soothe those tensions by Noda . Her father , Kakuei Tanaka , was prime minister in 1972 when Tokyo and Beijing resumed diplomatic relations decades after Japan 's occupation of large swathes of eastern China in the 1930s and 40s . She was nonetheless a controversial figure during her time as foreign minister at the start of this century for the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP ) , the political opponents of Noda 's Democratic Party of Japan ( DPJ ) . Koizumi sacked her in 2002 , saying a public dispute between her and her top aides was effectively preventing critical budget bills from passing through parliament . She once reportedly called the Foreign Ministry a `` den of devils , an evil place where conspiracies are plotted . '' Her outspokenness earned her bureaucratic enemies but gained her popularity with the Japanese public . How a remote rock split China and Japan . She also contradicted Koizumi 's government policy on relations between China and Taiwan and on a controversial history textbook approved by Tokyo that critics in Asia said whitewashed Japanese war crimes . It is unclear what influence she will have on diplomatic relations in her role as education minister . Koichiro Gemba will remain as foreign minister under the reshuffle . The others changes to Noda 's cabinet included the appointment of Koriki Jojima , a senior DPJ lawmaker , as finance minister .
Makiko Tanaka is appointed to the post of education minister . Her father oversaw the normalization of relations with China 40 years ago . Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a war over a group of remote villages .