Diaoyu Islands: regional tensions with China have increased since Japan’s nationalisation a decade ago

In 2012, the Japanese government put the disputed islands – called the Senkakus by Tokyo and the Diaoyus by Beijing – under state control

Disputed islands could be profitable, as studies by the United Nations indicated there may be potentially lucrative gas reserves around them

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The Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. China claim the uninhabited islands as their own, and refer to them as the Diaoyu Islands. Photo: Kyodo/File

Published: 3:15pm, 11 Sep 2022Updated: 8:20am, 12 Sep 2022

Japan’s nationalisation of the Diaoyu Islands, which it administers and calls the Senkakus, in the East China Sea has sparked security tensions in the region for the past 10 years, prompting Tokyo, known for its pacifist constitution, to be acutely wary of military threats from Beijing.

China has claimed the uninhabited islets since the early 1970s, calling them Diaoyu, after studies by the United Nations indicated there may be potentially lucrative gas reserves around them.

On September 11, 2012, the Japanese government of then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda put the islands under state control, five months after then Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara abruptly announced the metropolis would buy some of the disputed islands from a Japanese private owner.

Subsequently, communist-led China has stepped up provocations in the nearby waters, frequently sending its coastguard vessels near the islets, destabilising the regional security environment. Beijing has insisted the islands are its “inherent territory”.

In Japan, worries are mounting that the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping could attempt to invade the islets after conquering self-ruled democratic Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as its province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.