Japanese activists hold the national flags on Uotsuri island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012. Japan’s Coast Guard says a group of Japanese activists have landed on Uotsuri island, one of a group of islands at the center of an escalating territorial dispute with China. | |
Bloomberg News
Published: April 18, 2014
TOKYO — Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera plans to fly to Japan's westernmost island on Saturday to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for a military base that will be the closest to a chain of disputed isles also claimed by China.
Onodera said this week that he planned to attend the ceremony to thank the people of Yonaguni island, which has about 1,500 residents, for hosting the base as part of efforts to boost security around the remote territory. The base is scheduled to come into operation by the end of the financial year starting in April 2015.
Ships and planes from China and Japan have tailed one another around disputed East China Sea islands since Japan bought three of them from a private owner in 2012. Japan's dispatches of fighter jets to pursue Chinese aircraft rose by a third in the past year to a record 415 times, the Ministry of Defense said April 9.
The tensions have soured Sino-Japanese relations at a time when both countries are increasing military spending and seeking a greater role in the region. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has not held a summit with his Chinese counterpart since taking office in December 2012, as resentment also simmers over Japan's past invasion and occupation of much of China.
The Ground Self-Defense Force radar base on Yonaguni will be charged with improving surveillance of the region covering the uninhabited islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, and providing early warning of any "provocations," according to the Defense Ministry website.
The ministry said it was not yet clear how many troops would be based on Yonaguni.
The construction of the base on the island, which is known for its diving, is opposed by some local residents.
Yonaguni local assemblyman Chiyoki Tasato said in an email he would organize a sit-in protest on the day of the ceremony. "Base-hosting places tend not only to get caught up in war but incidents and accidents also occur in them and the victims are always local people," Tasato said in a speech in September 2012.
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