Japan will nationalise a group of islands at the centre of a territorial dispute with China, the government said Monday, as Tokyo tries both to appease nationalists and keep Beijing onside.
In a deal reported to be worth 2.05 billion yen ($26 million) Premier Yoshihiko Noda’s administration agreed to buy three islands it already runs, but which China claims as its own.
“During the ministerial meeting today, we agreed that we will obtain the ownership of the three Senkaku islands as quickly as possible,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters, using the Japanese name for what China calls Diaoyu.
The decision to purchase the islands, which will be formally owned by Japan’s Coast Guard, was aimed at their “quiet and stable maintenance”, he added.
Noda has been somewhat bounced into the deal by Shintaro Ishihara, the outspoken right wing governor of Tokyo, who said he wanted them developed to protect Japanese sovereignty.
China has reacted with muted irritation since reports emerged that the Japanese government was going to buy the chain.
Analysts say Noda’s solution — owning the islands and not doing anything with them — is the best thing he could do because it will go some way to assuaging nationalist fervour at home while not annoying China too much.
Fujimura said the purchase from private Japanese landowners is “not an issue that would stir problems with other countries”.
“Having said that, we hope that its doesn’t influence broader Japan-China relations. After the Chinese side expressed interest, diplomats from both countries have kept in close contact.”
Often testy Japan-China ties took a turn for the worse in August when pro-Beijing activists landed on one of the islands.
They were arrested by Japanese authorities and deported. Days later about a dozen Japanese nationalists raised their country’s flag on the same island, Uotsurijima, prompting protests in cities across China.
In a commentary ahead of the official announcement, China’s official Xinhua news agency reiterated Beijing’s claims over the islands, which lie around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Taiwan, and 2,000 kilometres from Tokyo.
“A recent string of Japanese provocations over Diaoyu Islands, over which China holds indisputable sovereignty, has already thrown bilateral relations into a scalding pot,” the agency said.
“No matter in what form, such a move is both illegal and invalid, and is firmly opposed by China. The Japanese government must bear full responsibility for whatever repercussions may arise.
“Pushing ahead with a provocative unilateral move serves nothing but to undermine the hard-won China-Japan strategic relationship of mutual benefit.”
But analysts say both sides are trying to reduce the diplomatic temperature as they eye the 40th anniversary of normalised ties at the end of the month.
Japan’s government currently leases four islands and owns a fifth. It does not allow people to visit and has a policy of not building anything there.
The islands sit in a strategically important shipping area and valuable mineral resources are thought to be nearby.
