Japan simulated ‘foreign’ invasion of Diaoyu Islands in East China Sea with drill involving Self-Defence Forces, coastguard and police
- Tokyo initially said the drill in Nagasaki prefecture on November 20 was ‘not intended for a specific island or a country’
- But government sources said the island used resembled one of the Diaoyu/Senkaku islets, which are controlled by Japan but claimed by China
Several government sources told Kyodo News that a drill involving the Self-Defence Forces (Japan’s de facto military), coastguard and police took place at an uninhabited island in Nagasaki prefecture with land features resembling Uotsuri Island, one of the islets that make up the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea.
Following the two-day drill from November 20 on Tsutara Island in Goto, Nagasaki prefecture, the government had said the exercise was aimed at improving Japan’s response to emergency situations in the country’s island areas, and was “not intended for a specific island or a country.”
But the sources told Kyodo the aim was to improve cooperation between the MSDF and coastguard to prepare for “grey zone” situations that stop short of a full-fledged military attack on Japan.
Garren Mulloy, a professor of international relations specialising in security issues at Daito Bunka University in Saitama prefecture, said the exercise was a “much-needed and positive development” from a Japanese perspective.
“This was not so much about landing drills carried out by Japan’s amphibious rapid deployment brigade because they have done those exercises before,” he said.
Till now, the SDF and coastguard had had different plans for dealing with a potential encroachment by foreign forces, he said.
“They have not been as interconnected as they needed to be. Now, they are trying to determine exactly when the line is going to be drawn operationally,” he said.
