Japan spends millions building structures on uninhabited rocks 1,740 km from Tokyo to mark its territory
The Japanese government is to spend Y13 billion (HK$838.3 million) on rebuilding facilities on Okinotorishima, a tiny atoll 1,740 km south of Tokyo that helps to extend Japan’s exclusive economic zone into the Pacific Ocean.
The tiny land mass is only above water because two parts of the coral reef have been protected by concrete embankments and blocks that are designed to prevent them from disappearing beneath the waves for good, critics of Japan’s claim to sovereignty say.
China has been particularly vocal about Japan’s claim, insisting that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea makes it clear that Okinotorishima is a reef that cannot support human life and, therefore, cannot be used by Tokyo to extend its continental shelf or EEZ a further 200 nautical miles.
Beijing has made no comments on Japan’s latest plans to develop Okinotorishma, but experts believe a statement will be forthcoming.
“China’s response will be interesting, particularly given what is happening in the South China Sea,” said Stephen Nagy, an associate professor in the department of politics and international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University.
“I don’t expect them to ignore this announcement and they will claim that it is all part of Japan’s strategy to legitimise its view on the status of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands as well, but they will try to detach it from what Beijing is doing in the South China Sea.
“China’s actions there are based on its historical claims, as they are on the Senkakus, and they tend to shy away from legal arguments,” he said.
Analysts say it would be ironic if Beijing now insists on citing legal arguments as to why Japan should not be permitted to develop Okinotorishima at the same time as it is doing precisely the same thing on a number of atolls in the Paracel and Spratly groups.
China has asserted its claim to almost all of the South China Sea by rapidly building artificial islands including airstrips said to be capable of hosting military jets.
Last month China test-landed two aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed South China Sea. Fiery Cross used to be a group of coral reefs underwater at high tide until a massive works programme turned it into a 2.8 square kilometre island.
China has demonstrated its disdain for Japan’s policy on Okinotorishima since the government announced in 2010 that it was investing around HK$55 million in new infrastructure at the site, sending oceanographic research vessels into waters close to the reef.
The additions made by Japan include a pier into deep water that permits large ships to dock as well as a road over the coral reef. There are also plans for a lighthouse and navigational facilities.
The new developments by Tokyo include a replacement for the present reinforced concrete structure that stands on an elevated platform 20 metres by 80 metres long within the reef. Three-storeys high and initially constructed in 1991, the facility is only temporarily manned and uses radar and remote-controlled cameras to monitor the activities of vessels operating in nearby waters.
Exposed to the elements, and regularly battered by the typhoons that blow through the region, the entire facility is suffering from corrosion.
Okinotorishima is critical to Japan’s quest for new resources, with the seabed surrounding the island believed to be littered with trillions of yen worth of resources.
The Japanese government is particularly keen to develop vast deposits of methane hydrates. A solid compound containing high levels of methane trapped in a crystal structure of water, methane hydrate is seen as an important source of energy in the future
Deposits dredged up from the seabed close to the island of Minami-Torishima, to the east, contain high concentrations of rare earth minerals such as dysprosium and terbium, used in liquid crystal displays, lasers, catalytic converters and wind turbines.
If the minerals be can be harvested on an industrial scale, it will dramatically reduce Japan’s reliance on supplies from China, which have proved to be unstable in the past and could suffer again in the future given the troubled relationship between the two rivals.
