Negotiation the only option for Senkakus
Hiroyuki Kurihara, a relative of the owner of several of the Senkaku Islands, called a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo last Friday, urging restraint on the part of Japan, China and Taiwan so that a war may be prevented.
The Kurihara family owns four of the Senkakus. Koga Tatsushiro leased the four islets from the Japanese government after the kingdom of the Ryukyus was annexed by Meiji Japan and made the prefecture of Okinawa.
Forty years ago, the heirless Koga sold the lease of Uotsuri-jima, Kita-Kojima, Minami-Kojima and Kuba-jima to his friend Kurihara, the father of Hiroyuki, Kunioki and Kazuko.
At present, the first three islets are leased to Hiroyuki’s elder brother, who is over 70 and heirless, while Kazuko owns the lease on Kuba-jima, which is managed by the Japanese Ministry Of Defence as a target range.
According to Hiroyuki Kurihara, many Japanese entrepreneurs have tried to purchase his elder brother’s lease, but no deal has been made. Kurihara said, on behalf of his brother Kunioki who is ageing and heirless, that he wishes to sell the islet trio to Governor Shintaro Ishihara of Tokyo rather than the Japanese government. The reason is simple, Kurihara said, because “Governor Ishihara has made the offer first.”
Months after Ishihara had made clear his intention to buy the three islets and started raising a fund for the purchase on behalf of his Tokyo metropolitan government, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared he would “nationalise” the three uninhabited islands.
The lease will expire shortly, and Ishihara is trying to send a survey mission to the Senkakus. It’s up to the granter of the lease rather than the leaseholder to permit access to the islets, Kurihara pointed out, adding: “The government may have to grant permission for a visit by the survey team.”
If the Ishihara mission lands on the islets almost at the same time with a survey team to be sent by a Chinese business tycoon planning to develop them as a leisure resort, chances are that armed conflict may occur.
Tong Zeng, chairman of the Zhong Xiang Investment Corporation and president of the Chinese People’s League for the Protection of the Diaoyutai Islands, has filed applications with Beijing’s National Oceanic Bureau for leasing the same islets for the development of the resort, and is ready to send his men for the survey and a study of the feasibility of opening a cruise route from Amoy in Fujian or Zhousan in Zhejiang to what the Chinese call the Diaoyutais, spelled Tiaoyutais in Taiwan, which also claims sovereignty over them. Should hostilities break out, it would be possible that Taiwan has to defend its inherent territory of the small archipelago by force of arms.
That’s the reason why Hiroyuki Kurihara called on Tokyo, Beijing and Taipei to restrain from drastic action so that the three countries may shelve the sovereignty dispute in order to jointly tap the fishing resources as well as undersea oil reserves of the Senkaku Islands.
As a matter of fact, Taipei has no plan of action whatsoever. All Taiwan wants is to reach a modus vivendi to jointly develop the Tiaoyutai resources. It’s the Japanese who need restraint. Beijing began to take a hard stance after a series of provocations, including ultra-nationalist Ishihara’s plan to purchase the Senkakus and Noda’s nationalisation proclamation.
The best way to defuse any war crisis is for the three parties to the dispute to come together to the negotiating table to iron out their differences. But as things are going in Japan, Noda cannot but persist in nationalising the Senkakus in order just to get his Democratic Party of Japan to survive a snap general election that may be called in October or November.
