By DAIZO TERAMOTO/ Staff Writer
October 5, 2021 at 17:05 JST
The Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in September 2010 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The central government has denied a permit request by the city of Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, to land municipal personnel on the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
According to the municipal government, it made the Sept. 3 request so that city officials could land on the island to set up new signposts that mark an administrative area that it has renamed. But its application was ultimately rejected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The ministry notified the city on Sept. 28 that the central government has “adopted a general policy against landing on the Senkaku Islands, except for government officials, in order to stably maintain and manage the Senkaku Islands.”
The city assembly passed a bill in June 2020 to change the area name for the Senkaku Islands from “Tonoshiro” to “Tonoshiro Senkaku.”
The address was officially changed in October last year.
The five current markers were set up in 1969 on the five Senkaku Islands.
The city has spent about 2 million yen ($18,000) on five new signposts that display the new address name. Each pillar is 108 centimeters high and 30 cm wide.
The uninhabited islands are under Japan’s administration, but China and Taiwan also claim sovereignty over them.
Beijing and Taipei viewed Ishigaki’s move as an attempt to solidify Japan’s territorial claim.
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