Japanese politicians land on disputed isles

TOKYO—Four Japanese citizens, including municipal politicians, landed Tuesday on islands in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter territorial dispute with Beijing, authorities said.

The group sailed to the uninhabited islets, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, on a fishing boat and stayed there for more than two hours, according to the Japan Coast Guard.

The move came as Japan and China commemorate the 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic ties this year and attempt to improve their sour relationship.

Separately, a dozen pro-China activists also headed for the disputed islands on Tuesday, aboard a boat bearing a Chinese flag that set sail from Hong Kong on a journey expected to take two or three days.

“Diaoyu island is ours. It is from our ancestors. We are protesting Japan’s attitude and actions,” their spokesman Huang Hsi-lin told reporters before departing.

The pro-China group, including activists from Taiwan and Hong Kong, has made repeated attempts to land on the islands, but apart from one successful foray in 1996 they have been blocked by Japanese patrol vessels.

The Japanese government leases the islands from private land owners, and bans entry in a bid to prevent political incidents.

The Japanese coast guard said that three citizens on board the fishing boat, which sailed from Ishigaki in Japan’s southwest, landed Tuesday on one of the islands around 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) while the fourth followed 20 minutes later.

Of the four, two were identified as Hitoshi Nakama and Tadashi Nakamine of the Ishigaki municipal assembly, while the identities of the other two were not immediately known, a spokesman said.

Nakama also went to the isles in 2010 without the Japanese central government’s permission.

“The Coast Guard’s patrol vessels are always near the Senkaku islands. As their boat approached Senkaku, the coast guard verbally instructed them not to go any closer,” the spokesman said.

“We conducted an onboard safety inspection for their vessel, but the people on the ship disembarked on a small rubber boat and headed toward the Senkaku,” he added.

“We have told them that it was against the law to land on the island. They said they were going fishing. We are not in position to stop them from going to fishing.”

The four men returned to the boat before noon and began their return trip to Ishigaki, the coast guard said, adding that the landing was a police matter.

Police in Okinawa, a prefecture which takes in Ishigaki, declined to comment on the case.

The pro-China activists who set sail from Hong Kong said it was the group’s first trip from the territory after previous attempts staged from Taiwan were blocked.

“This is a new attempt. We don’t know if we will succeed,” said Huang, who added that since 1996 they had made 15 trips to the disputed region.

“Apart from the first year, we have had no success reaching the islands because of attempts to block us. We have been continually harassed by the Japanese side,” he said.

“Every year it is the same, Japanese boats will surround our boat and stop us from approaching the islands.”

The tiny isles, also claimed by Taiwan, have been a source of tension between Japan and China for decades.

When Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited China on December 25-26, he agreed with Beijing to set up a high-level meeting on maritime affairs in an effort to reduce tensions.

In September 2010, relations between Tokyo and Beijing turned icy after a collision between a Japanese coast guard vessel and a Chinese fishing boat off the isles which are administered by Tokyo.

After Japan arrested the skipper, a furious China demanded his immediate release, tightening trade restrictions and cancelling diplomatic, political and cultural exchanges.

Japan eventually released the fisherman, but the incident fueled anti-China sentiment among the Japanese public.