Japan Will Develop Missile To Defend Disputed Islands Against China

This footage filmed by the Japan Coast Guard off Uotsurishima islet of the Senkaku Islands between August 5 and 9 shows Chinese maritime operations in the region and efforts by Japanese vessels to counter them by keeping alert.

Development costs will be part of the Defense Ministry’s budget request for the fiscal year ending March 2018, and the weapons are set to be deployed on islands, such as Miyako, in Japan’s southernmost Okinawa prefecture by 2023.

The Global Times newspaper, known for its ardently nationalist stance, said in an editorial that the deployment “could threaten all Chinese ships in the waters” of the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, which are just 170 kilometers away.

Japan has chose to develop and deploy a land-to-sea missile system created to enhance defense in the East China Sea at the same time it is embroiled in a tense standoff with China over the disputed Senkaku island chain, according to Japanese media reports.

“Both governments are looking into the possibility of getting two more vessels, this time the bigger ones”, Masato Ohtaka, deputy spokesman of Japan’s foreign ministry, told journalists in Manila. China is shifting its power towards the Senkaku Islands, as well as Okinawa and other Japanese islands.

The new surface-to-ship missile would also be effective if a remote island is occupied.

“There are usually around three Chinese government vessels deployed in the contiguous zone of the Senkaku Islands, and four or five Chinese government vessels deployed in the area surrounding the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea”, the statement added.

But these new moves by Tokyo are only add-ons to existing infrastructure in the area.

The territory is also disputed between Japan and Taiwan.

The ship delivery figured in an 80-minute meeting between Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday in southern Davao City.

China is already criticizing the move. “Chinese government vessels now deployed to the area around the Senkaku Islands is far higher than the numbers above”.

China has dramatically increased its presence around the Senkaku Islands – islands administered by Japan but claimed by China. China and Japan have been engaged in a bitter maritime dispute over the East China Sea. “This makes China’s actions illegal and provocative in a way which Japan’s are not”.

Tokyo has also not used the Self-Defense Forces’ presence in the Ryukyus to prevent Chinese warships and bombers from sailing through the Miyako Strait and worldwide waters close to Japanese territories, which contrasts with Beijing’s behavior in the region.