Chinese ships seen in disputed waters for first time since LDP's win (Senkaku/Diaoyu issue)

China has sent ships into the islands’ waters 19 times since Tokyo nationalised the chain in September.

Abe has pushed an agenda that includes upgrading the country’s Self Defense Forces to make them a full-scale military, and has spoken of wanting to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution.

 

TOKYO —

China sent its ships into territorial waters around disputed islands Friday, in the first incursion since Japan elected a new government.
The move is a setback to hopes in Tokyo that Beijing might use the poll as a chance for a fresh start after months of bitter wrangling and rhetoric over an issue that neither side is prepared to budge on.

Japan’s coast guard said three surveillance vessels moved inside the 12-nautical mile band around the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus, with a fisheries patrol ship logged in adjacent waters.
At nightfall they remained in the area, it said.
China has sent ships into the islands’ waters 19 times since Tokyo nationalised the chain in September, according to a coastguard tally, with analysts saying Beijing intends to prove it can come and go as it pleases.
The ante was upped last week when a Chinese plane overflew the area, in what Japan said was the first time Beijing had breached its airspace since at least 1958. Tokyo scrambled fighter jets in response.
But the well-equipped coast guard says State Oceanic Administration vessels had stayed outside territorial waters since Sunday’s election, in which Shinzo Abe swept to power, vowing a tough line on Beijing.
In one of his first broadcast interviews after the win, he said there was no room for compromise in the row and put the onus for improved relations on Beijing.
“Japan and China need to share the recognition that having good relations is in the national interests of both countries,” he said. “China lacks this recognition a little bit. I want them to think anew about mutually beneficial strategic relations.”
Friday’s return to the pre-election pattern is a sign Beijing “doesn’t want to compromise and wants to keep the pressure” up, said Robert Dujarric, director of Temple University Japan’s Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies.
“It shows that Beijing wants to continue the confrontation. A new prime minister always opens up the possibility of ‘hitting the restart button’ but clearly Beijing is not interested in improving relations.”
Following the latest incursion, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “Official Chinese vessels have always maintained routine rights protection patrols in the waters of the Diaoyu islands.”
Abe has pushed an agenda that includes upgrading the country’s Self Defense Forces to make them a full-scale military, and has spoken of wanting to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution.
But analysts have said at least some of this could be posturing.
They point to the pragmatism of his 2006-2007 tenure as prime minister, when his opinions on controversial issues that could aggravate China were ambiguous or were left unsaid.
As premier he stayed away from Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals, and is a running sore in Tokyo’s relations with its neighbors.
Abe also made China his first foreign destination.
Following his victory on Sunday, he said he would make rebuilding Japan’s alliance with Washington his top foreign policy goal and said it would be the first place he visits after assuming office.
Despite warm words about the importance of economic ties with Beijing—China is Japan’s biggest trading partner—Abe stressed the need to build relations with other countries, such as India and Australia.

© 2012 AFP

 http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/chinese-ships-in-disputed-waters-for-first-time-since-ldps-win

21/12/12

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Senkaku/Diaoyu issue

Japan’s next PM: No quarter for China, reach out to Russia

(Senkaku/Diaoyu issue)
As Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda steps down after exit polls reveal a complete defeat of his party in parliamentary elections, the winner of the race Shinzo Abe states that Tokyo won’t concede China "one millimeter" of “Japan’s islands.”
"China is challenging the fact that (the islands) are Japan's inherent territory. Our objective is to stop the challenge," Shinzo Abe, leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), declared Sunday.

Though official results from Japans parliamentary election are not expected any earlier than Monday afternoon, exit polls already show the LDP’s landslide victory in the poll.
Acknowledging the defeat, PM Noda resigned as head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and said he was quitting his office. The DPJ has been in power for three years. In the new parliament it is projected to take no more than 77 seats out of 480.
Abe’s party is eyeing around 300 places and its ally, New Komeito party, looks set to win about 30 seats. This would give the alliance a two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament and a possibility to overrule the upper-house’s decisions.
A serious-looking Abe, though satisfied with the victory, still remarked that the win looks like a protest vote against the DPJ than a strong endorsement of his party.
"I think the results do not mean we have regained the public's trust 100 percent. Rather, they reflect 'no votes' to the DPJ's politics that stalled everything the past three years," he told NHK. "Now we are facing the test of how we can live up to the public's expectations, and we have to answer that question."
Abe has already served as Japanese PM between 2006 and 2007. By 2009, the LDP had enjoyed almost 50 years of unbroken rule when the parliament was snatched by Noda’s party.
In one of his first interviews, Abe reiterated to journalists of some of his more hard-line views.
"Japan and China need to share the recognition that having good relations is in the national interests of both countries," he said. "China lacks this recognition a little bit. I want them to think anew about mutually beneficial strategic relations."
The PM-to-be pledged that he would not concede even "one millimeter" in the territorial row with China.
Abe’s views include upgrading the country's "Self Defense Forces" to make Japan a full-scale military force. The politician also wants to revise Japan's pacifist constitution.
Japan and China’s long-standing dispute over the sovereignty of a small chain of islands in the East China Sea flared up badly in September after Tokyo nationalized the territory. This triggered wide protests across China and Japanese businesses suffered boycotts.
As for other international relations, Abe hailed an era of “mending”.
"We also need to deepen ties with Asia. I want to build up ties with Asian nations including India and Australia. After enhancing our diplomacy, I want to improve relations with China," he said.
He also talked of improving relations with Russia.
“When I was the PM, I met President Vladimir Putin several times. Now that he’s been reelected and I will take the office for a second term, we will improve the relations between our countries. Moreover, I would like to solve the territorial dispute and sign the peace treaty,” he said.
Tokyo’s relations with Moscow have been marred by another on-going territorial dispute – over the chain of Southern Kuril Islands. The territory comprises the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, the Khabomai Rocks and Iturup, which fell under Soviet control after WW2 and have since been considered Russian territory since. Japan, however, insists the islands – known as the Northern Territories by the Japanese – belong to them.
Due to this dispute, Russia and Japan have not been able to sign a peace treaty since the end of WW2, which at times sets technical barriers between the two countries.

News RSS : Today

 17/12/12

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Keen to make an impression: Japan-US military drills begin amid Asian island row

Japan has launched naval drills with the US in spite of heightened tensions with China over a territorial dispute. The exercise was initially planned to simulate an island re-occupation, but was scrapped for naval operations to avoid agitating China.
The 11-day drills are aimed at boosting the defense of Japan’s southwestern island territories and will involve more than 37,000 Japanese personnel and 10,000 US forces, along with an aircraft carrier.
Operation Keen Sword was originally planned to incorporate a mission to simulate the retaking of an island. Although neither the US nor Japan specified if the mission was aimed at the disputed archipelago “it was widely perceived they had in mind the Senkaku Islands,” said Japanese newspaper Kyodo.

The Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu by the Chinese, are claimed by both China and Japan and are the source of simmering tensions between the two nations. In view of the escalating dispute, the plans to enact a re-taking operation on Irisunajima Island were shelved so as not to goad China.
The islands are uninhabited, but are believed to hold rich oil and gas deposits. The archipelago has changed hands a number of times over the years, but has been administered by the Japanese since 1975. Taiwan also lays claim to the islands.
China addressed the planned exercises with suspicion, saying it “sternly opposes Japan wooing extraterritorial nations for joint military drills that only increase regional tensions.”
Given the scope of the Keen Sword maneuvers, the Chinese regard it as a provocation. Washington and Tokyo, however, maintain that it is merely a routine drill, harking back to the last Keen Sword exercise, which took place in 2010.
While the US does not openly support either party in the island dispute, it is obliged to protect Japanese territory from an “armed attack” by a 1960 mutual security treaty with Japan.
In recent weeks both China and Japan have been sending patrol ships to the disputed islands and exchanging aggressive rhetoric.
Senior Japanese and Chinese Foreign Ministry officials agreed to extend dialogue over worsening diplomatic ties caused by the island dispute through to Monday, following a meeting at the weekend.
It is the third high-level meeting between the two governments since the Japanese state purchased three of the five islands from their private owners, provoking Chinese rage and intensifying the dispute.

News RSS : Today

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