Japan’s Attempts at Artificial Island Building
By Yuka Hayashi
May 14, 2015 8:23 pm JST
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This file photo from 2005 shows then Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara waving the Japanese national flag on Okinotori Island, a partially submerged reef more than 1,000 miles south of Tokyo.Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

China’s rapid expansion of artificial islands in the South China Sea has alarmed its neighbors and prompted the U.S. to consider using military planes and ships to contest Beijing’s territorial claims. But the building of facilities on rocks or low-lying reefs to strengthen claims to them isn’t a new tactic in East Asia. Japan also has some examples of its own.

Most prominent is Okinotori Island, an uninhibited coral reef more than 1,000 miles south of Tokyo. Japan calls the partially submerged reef its southernmost island. That gives the nation a vast exclusive economic zone around it, where Japanese ships can fish and look for resources. China has contested that claim, calling it a “rock.”

When faced with an “islands or rocks” question, nations turn to the United Nations Law of the Sea for legitimacy, but it’s far from conclusive. The law defines an island as “a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide”. It also states countries can claim an EEZ around an island only when it has “inhabitants, or self-sustaining economic activity.”

Japan’s first attempt to beef up Okinotori took place during World War II with a plan to build a lighthouse. The structure was never built but its artificial foundation remains today.

Since the 1980s, various steps have been taken to protect Okinotori’s landmass. Tetrapods were piled high on its shoreline and a delicate mass of sand was covered with a rust-proof titanium net. To further stress Okinotori’s island status, Japan has built a weather observation station, and its researchers have considered everything from building a prison to breeding micro-organisms.

Japan’s most ambitious effort at Okinotori ended in a tragedy last year. During a port-building project, a floating pier overturned, killing five workers.

Several hundred miles away is another reef called Minamitori Island, Japan’s easternmost island. There, similar efforts have been made, including the building of a runway and reinforcement of the shoreline.

As tensions with China have flared over contested East China Sea islands in recent years, officials in Tokyo have stepped up efforts to strengthen the nation’s claims on remote islands. Among them is identifying and giving official names to the thousands of tiny islets surrounding Japan’s four main islands.

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/05/14/japans-attempts-at-artificial-island-building/

Amid Chinese Territory Disputes, Japan To Grow An Island Out of Coral
By Michelle Mark @michelleamark On 12/26/15 AT 4:41 PM


Japan plans to revive the coral reef that forms the island of Okinotorishima, as it takes on China in a longstanding territorial dispute in the region. Pictured: A 50-meter outcropping named Higashikojima, protected by a steel net and embankment, is seen from Okinotori island, about 1,700 km (1,056 miles) south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean on May 20, 2005. Photo: Reuters/Issei Kato


Coral reefs are seen along the coast near the U.S. Marine base Camp Schwab, off the tiny hamlet of Henoko in Nago on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, Oct. 29, 2015. Japanese researchers are experimenting with growing coral to plant and regrow the reef on the atoll Okinotorishima. Photo: REUTERS/Kyodo

While China’s manmade islands have become a source of tension in the South China Sea territory disputes, Japan has been attempting to bolster its own military and territorial advantages by growing an island out of coral, Financial Times reported.

The island of Okinotorishima, meaning “distant bird island,” resides in the Philippine Sea mostly below sea level, with just two small areas protruding during high tide. While China insists the the area is no more than a rock, the Japanese government has funneled more than $600 million over the past 30 years to prevent its disappearance as climate change spurs rising sea levels, Asia Times reported.

The Deep Seawater Research Institute on the island of Kumejima houses a greenhouse containing a bathtub full of growing baby coral. Workers brought the coral from Okinotorishima and harvested eggs, and hope to transplant the coral back to the atoll after they grow in a lab for about a year. For Japan, the benefits of regrowing the island are twofold: Researchers are keen to find a solution for the world’s rapidly disappearing coral reefs, and the Japanese government seeks to preserve its only landmass in the area, which creates a 200-mile exclusive economic zone and solidifies the country’s control over those waters.

“Our experiments with planting coral on Okinotorishima are ongoing,” Makoto Omori, an emeritus professor at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, told FT. “We’ve made progress in expanding the area of coral planted, but the death rate of the transplanted coral is high, so we can’t yet say the amount of coral on the island is increasing.”

To be considered a true island, Article 121 of the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea says the area of land must be “naturally formed” and above water during high tide, and does not include “rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own,” which rules out the manmade islands China has created with sand and concrete. Japan is hoping to argue that regrown coral on Okinotorishima will mean the island is “naturally formed.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/amid-chinese-territory-disputes-japan-grow-island-out-coral-2240251

An islet the size of your bedroom has Japan and Taiwan fighting

Normally close allies Japan and Taiwan are locked in a dispute over fishing rights off a small rocky outcropping in the Pacific Ocean, a rare disagreement that is being cast as a final foreign policy test for Taiwan’s outgoing president.

The Foreign Ministry in Taipei says Japan had no reason to detain a Taiwan-registered fishing boat Monday as it worked the Pacific Ocean southeast of Okinotori, an outcropping more than 1,075 miles south of Tokyo and 975 miles east of Taipei.

Okinotori has just about 100 square feet of rock above sea level -- no more than the size of a bedroom. Taiwan says Okinotori is a reef, not an island, and that Japan cannot claim an exclusive economic zone around it. Waters outside such zones are high seas, open to all.

But Japan calls Okinotori a true island, worthy of a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, and says the Taiwanese fishing boat was 150 nautical miles off the disputed outcropping.

Japan’s coast guard detained the captain and nine crew members aboard the Tung Sheng Chi No. 16 and towed the fishing boat to Iwo Jima. The captain and crew were released Monday afternoon once the vessel’s owner paid a $54,400 security deposit with the Taiwanese government’s help.

The payment obligates those detained to show up for a court hearing in Japan, but does not mean Taiwan accepts Japan’s maritime claim, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Taiwan has called for the two sides to negotiate the dispute according to international law or “settle it peacefully” with help from international organizations. Japan is refusing to hold talks, a spokesman for Tokyo’s de facto embassy in Taipei said.

“Because we cannot accept Taiwan’s position, we find it impossible to hold talks,” said the spokesman, Shinichiro Misawa.

After being dogged for years by perceptions of a weak foreign policy, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who has less than a month left in office, is trying to use the incident to show strength and to stand up for fishing interests loyal to his political party, analysts say.

Ma was elected in 2008 and must step down in May due to term limits. He made a name in office mostly for strengthening relations with China, expanding trade and tourism ties, but that effort met a public opinion backlash starting in 2014. China still hopes to unify with Taiwan despite opinion surveys in Taiwan that show a majority of people oppose that idea.

Taiwan’s foreign minister summoned Japan’s representative in Taipei for an hour Friday to lodge a protest over the fishing rights dispute. A few dozen fishermen had protested at the de facto Japanese embassy Wednesday, some hurling eggs.

Japan is keeping quiet because it believes that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen will be friendlier to Tokyo and that the two sides will be able to revisit matters once she assumes office in a few weeks, analysts say.

“Ma doesn’t have anything to lose, only one month left, and this will be the last chance to show he’s the protector of Taiwan’s national dignity,” said Alex Chiang, an international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “I think Japan will hold on and talk to the new government because most people believe it will be more friendly to Japan.”

This year, Ma also questioned the Philippines over its decision to challenge China in an international court in the Hague over claims in the South China Sea. A ruling in Manila’s favor would also weaken Taiwan’s claims in the area as well.

Ma’s stance on territorial issues is one differentiating point for his Nationalist Party, or KMT, vis-à-vis Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party, said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor in Taiwan.

The Democratic Progressive Party has not indicated how Tsai’s administration plans to defend Taiwan’s maritime claims. The president-elect’s party advised in a statement Friday that the government should “proactively communicate” with Japan to prevent new incidents.

“One of the reasons [for Ma to challenge Japan] is to distinguish the KMT from the Democratic Progressive Party, which is soft on Japan,” Lin said.

Japan has previously shown a willingness to accommodate Taiwan on fishing issues.

In 2013, the two sides signed a deal giving Taiwanese fishing boats access to 1,400 square nautical miles near the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands -- a jab at China, which also claims the islands them and calls them the Diaoyus.

Jennings is a special correspondent.

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-taiwan-islet-dispute-20160429-story.html

Taiwanese legislators demand tougher action on Japan over Okinotori

Politics May. 06, 2016 - 04:22PM JST ( 13 )
TAIPEI —

Legislators of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party (KMT) are demanding that the executive branch take tougher action against Japan, including use of military force, after a Taiwanese fishing boat and its crew were detained by Japan’s coast guard last month for fishing in Japanese waters.

KMT legislator Liao Kuo-tung on Thursday told a legislative committee that the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou, also of the KMT, is “too weak” in handling the matter so “when it (Taiwan) gives an inch, it (Japan) will take a mile.”

“We must take stronger actions,” he said. “Only by using military means can we make Japan bow its head.”

The Dong Sheng Ji No. 16 was found by the Japan Coast Guard in waters near Okinotori, the southernmost point of Japanese territory, on April 24. It was subsequently boarded and its crew members were detained.

The boat and its crew were released a few days later following negotiations that led to payment of a 6 million yen fine to the Japanese side.

Another KMT lawmaker, Kung Wen-chi, said sending official vessels to protect Taiwanese fishermen in the area is not an act of provocation but a proper measure aimed at pressuring Japan to come to the negotiation table.

“We are not afraid of Japan,” he said. “If you want peace, you should prepare for war.”

However, legislators of the soon-to-be ruling Democratic Progressive Party advised caution.

DPP legislator Kuan Bi-ling criticized the Ma administration for poorly handling the matter.

“I hope to see negotiations not confrontations,” she said. “I am totally against using this incident to instigate nationalist ideologies.”

Another DPP legislator, Chen Ming-wen, said sending official vessels to adjacent waters, not to mention taking military action, is “not a rational move.”

Chen said the administration should resolve the issue through diplomatic means. The Ma administration must also help the Taiwanese fishermen reclaim the 6 million yen paid to the Japanese side, he said.

Since Japan declared its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone around Okinotori in 1996, only three Taiwanese fishing boats, including the Dong Sheng Ji No. 16, have been detained by Japanese authorities.

While the owners of the ships detained in 2005 and last month paid out of their own pockets, Taiwan’s representative office in Japan paid on behalf of the owner of another ship detained in 2012.

Tsai Ming-yao, secretary general of the Association for East Asian Relations, told the same committee that in addition to continuing negotiations with Japan, government agencies will continue to remind Taiwanese fishermen of the risks they run when fishing in that area.

Taiwan could also seek the assistance of a third country, such as the United States, to help resolve the issue.

Tsai, however, emphasized that Taiwan will not seek help from mainland China.

Ma, who will step down May 20 after ending his second term in office, said last week that Japan’s self-declared EEZ violates the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and proposed that Taiwan and Japan consider seeking international arbitration. Tsai, however, said Thursday that because Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, it will be very difficult to bring about.

Hsu Yung-ming, a legislator from the New Power Party, a DPP ally, said Ma himself has been inconsistent in his position on Okinotori.

While Japan named Okinotori an island in 1931 and declared its 200-nautical-mile EEZ in 1996, Hsu said the Taiwan government did and said nothing then.

After Ma came to office in 2008, he still called Okinotori an island in 2014 but changed his mind only last month and instructed all government agencies to refer to Okinotori as “rocks” instead.

“I wonder whether it is the personal opinion of President Ma or the official position of the Taiwan government,” Hsu said.

If Taiwan and Japan continue to have differences over the status of Okinotori, Hsu said he does not know how they could work out a fisheries pact as the Ma administration has instructed government agencies.

© KYODO

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/taiwanese-legislators-demand-tougher-action-on-japan-over-okinotori