07/16/2013, 00.00
JAPAN - CHINA
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To Beijing’s ire, Tokyo ready to nationalize 400 other islands

The Japanese government has prepared a plan to declare its sovereignty over a number of small islets that lie off the west coast. An attempt that could further irritate Beijing, engaged in a long battle for the ownership of the Senkaku / Diaoyu. But experts hold back: "A domestic political move, Abe wants to win the parliamentary elections of July 21."

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. "

 

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