Photo/Illutration Uotsurishima, the largest of the Senkaku Islands, is shown in the background with Minami-Kojima and Kita-Kojima (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Beijing has defied Tokyo’s repeated demands to remove a buoy set up within Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the East China Sea, leaving the impasse in uncharted waters for about 10 months.

The yellow buoy, about 10 meters in diameter, is carrying what appears to be meteorological observation equipment.

Japan lodged a protest with China and demanded the anchored float be immediately removed after the Japan Coast Guard discovered it northwest of the Senkaku Islands in July.

The uninhabited islands, which belong to the city of Ishigaki in Okinawa Prefecture, are also claimed by China.

Japan said installing a structure within its EEZ without its consent violates the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

However, China argued that the area falls under its own EEZ.

The buoy is seen as Beijing’s attempt to solidify its jurisdiction claim over the area.

At a meeting in San Francisco in November, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to immediately remove the buoy, but to no avail.

The ruling and opposition parties have criticized the Kishida administration for failing to take effective countermeasures.

The government remains cautious about removing the buoy on its own, with Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa citing the absence of clear-cut rules or precedents under international law.

Complicating the issue is that the boundary for Japan’s EEZ has not been demarcated.

A coastal country can designate an area up to 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers) from its coastline as its EEZ under the UNCLOS.

But the 200-nautical mile zone from Japanese coast overlaps the 200-nautical mile zone from Chinese coast in the East China Sea.

Japan set the boundary for its EEZ along a geographical median line between the two countries, but China has not agreed to Japan’s designation. 

The buoy is located about 500 meters from the median line in the Japanese side, according to government sources.

A coastal country has sovereign rights to explore and develop natural resources in its EEZ.

The UNCLOS stipulates that consent from the country in question is required for conducting “marine scientific research” in its EEZ.

Japan considers China setting up the buoy without prior consultation a violation of international law.

But it remains unclear what measures a country can take against another over a violation because there are no specific rules and precedents under the UNCLOS.

“It falls in a legal gray area how far Japan can go (in responding to the issue),” said a senior Foreign Ministry official.

Shigeki Sakamoto, a professor emeritus at Kobe University and expert on the law of the sea, said Japan should remove the buoy to demonstrate its determination and capability to defend its territory and territorial waters.

“If we do nothing, countries other than China could perceive that Japan has not taken the issue seriously,” Sakamoto said.

Foreign Ministry officials remain skeptical, however.

“The buoy cannot be removed in a matter of minutes,” another senior ministry official said. “We are bound to clash at the site.”

It was not the first Chinese buoy confirmed in the area.

One was found in the Chinese side of the median line in 2013 and another was discovered in the Japanese side in 2018.

The Japan Coast Guard spotted one floating upside down in Japan’s EEZ in January.

It was believed to have sunk into the sea within days, sources said.

China has shown no signs toward a compromise to resolve the issue.

When asked about the buoy found in January, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news conference in February that it was “originally placed in the waters near the Yangtze River estuary and drifted away owing to technical failure.”

He said the two countries were communicating with each other on the buoy.

China’s state media have since made no direct mention of the issue.

(This article was written by Anri Takahashi and Sotaro Hata in Beijing.)

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