Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - In a move that is likely to deteriorate further relations with China, the Japanese government is preparing to nationalize some 400 islands of various sizes that are close to its western shores. The move was reported by the conservative Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun,, according to which the prime minister Shinzo Abe has already given the green light to a working group with the task of identifying the islands, naming and nationalizing them.
Go Ito, a professor of
international relations at Meiji University in Tokyo, said: "This does not come as a surprise
really and it's something that the Japanese government had to do sooner or
later. It's also significant because they
are acting now before China can start lodging claims to these islands. Of
course, that means that we will again have conflicting claims over the
sovereignty of some of these territories, just as we have over the Senkakus now. "
The
Professor is referring to an archipelago that is disputed between Tokyo,
Beijing and Taipei. the
Senkaku, which the Chinese call the Diaoyu, were declared Japanese territory in
2011 and since then a
series of diplomatic clashes, political and even military (only ever at a level
of provocation) have shaken the peace in the East China Sea and brought bilateral
relations to their
lowest level in decades.
Chinese analysts instead belittle
the importance of the gesture. According
Degui Lian, deputy director of the Institute for Japanese Studies at the
University of Shanghai: "Tokyo is doing this out of fear as it has not sought sovereignty of
these islands through a proper legal procedure. The plan is unlikely to cast a significant impact on the relationship
between China and Japan.
"
According
to Da Zhigang, of Heilongjiang Academy
of Social Sciences, it's more of a domestic ploy: "July 21 in Japan will
vote to elect the upper house, and the Abe administration wants to divert voters' attention from domestic
issues to external affairs. He
hopes to win and resolve the political stalemate in which Japan has languished
for at least 6 years. "