It did
Posted on 07/15/2013 7:32:04 PM PDT by TexGrill
Japan may nationalize any unclaimed islands in its waters in a bid to bolster its territorial claims, a government source said Monday.
The government plans to establish a new council aimed at strengthening the administration of Japan’s 400 or so remote islands to ensure it has control over natural resources in the surrounding waters, the source said.
The step might include islands that have no legal owners.
Japan’s fringe islands define the limits of its territorial waters, and the government is keen to further protect those areas in light of China’s incessant maritime activities near Japan’s territorial waters.
By using the council to coordinate with related ministries and agencies, the government will survey the 400 islands, half of which remain unnamed.
The government will collect environmental and other data on the islands and slap names on those yet unnamed.
The council will be established after the House of Councilors election on July 21, the source said.
In 2012, Japan completed the process of naming all of the 99 remote islands that define its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, which gives it the sole rights to explore any natural resources within.
The territorial row over Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan, was rekindled last September when Tokyo nationalized three islands in the chain in what it said was a mere administrative change of ownership to keep them out of the hands of outspoken nationalist Shintaro Ishihara, who used his power as Tokyo governor to start the whole affair.
The purchase brought Japan’s Senkaku islet count to four.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
Should have happened DECADES ago, sorry..!
The whole region has energy needs, and China wants to impede marine transit and establish claims anywhere that ownership claims and rights are not well-established.
The aim of China is to expel the US Navy to the area it sees as the “Eastern Pacific”, which basically means Guam and closer:
They even laid it out point-blank to use, “How ‘bout you guys Guam and east, and us guys west of that, whaddya say...?”
They see us a huuuuge obstacle, and then they’ll go to work on Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.
I guessing the big war will start around 2015-2016.
It’s like Japans Greater Asia co-prosperity Sphere. This time someone else is big brother. U meen it’s like all the different muzzies!
It did
I have heard that the Chinese claimed the islands decades before the Japanese, making the 1895 Japanese declaration void. The issue becomes then whether the US had the right to give “back” to Japan something that belonged to China in 1972.
Narrative of an empty space
The Economist
December 22, 2012
Eh.....it did, but with Japan as the agent, not China, as now.
Baaaasically if you swap China for Japan and fast forward 60 years, that’s what we have, right now.
Throw in a financial collapse and everything is set, with the important difference that Japan is qualitatively not behind China the way China was vis-a-vis Japan, so long ago.
Of course in the future re-play both sides will prolly have nukes, so that’s sorta a big wild-card.
Basically Japan needs real carriers, long-range subs, and they need to buy the X-47, and air-to-air refueling planes, etc.
Lots of stuff they can’t legally own, right now.
Yes, that’s correct.
A very recent and rather crazy element is that China at one point even averred that OKINAWA also rightfully belonged to China:
That left me totally flabbergasted, and I hope a bunch of important people got fired after that, cuz that is a fairly crazy assertion —NO ONE on Okinawa sees China as home at all.
That particular claim is NUTS.
Many disputes go back a couple thousand years. Murky history. However, legally, China gave up claims after their defeat by Japan in the 1890's. Western powers intervened to stop Japan from swallowing up China then, and part of the settlement to end the war was China giving up various claims (part of that included Korean land). If China ever had a claim, they turned over possession to Japan then. Legally, China has no claim to the Senkaku islands, unless they go to war with Japan and win. They lost badly in the last two encounters until the western powers intervened. This time, the western powers will not necessarily side with China.
There are other important factors. Yes, Japan is strong militarily now. However, there is strong nationalistic fever in the Chinese, not so evident in the Japanese. The Japanese have a bad taste in their mouth for war, after their beatdown in WWII. Throw in their aging population and low birthrate, and the weakened "manliness" of men today, and all that may put Japan at a disadvantage against China in another war. I do believe another great war is coming; it seems that the Chinese are moving at a faster pace in preparing for it than others are doing. It's going to be ugly.
What is the properly signed treaty documenting this?
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