Japan-China tensions rise, the remote Yonaguni island ramps up defenses
Chinese ships patrol the sea around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, an uninhabited island chain also claimed by China and Taiwan, near where Kinjo lives. The islands, which are known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and Diaoyutai in Taiwan, have become one of the focus points of increasing tensions in the region.
“The bow of one of their ships was pointed straight at us, and they were chasing us. I don’t know for sure, but I also saw what looked like cannons,” the 50-year-old fisherman told CNN, as he described one of several encounters with the Chinese Coast Guard over the past few years.
Although the territorial dispute over the rocky chain stretches back more than a century, China has increased its presence around the islands, especially in recent decades. That’s prompted fears Beijing will exert its claims over the contested islands.
China’s Foreign Ministry told CNN that the Chinese Coast Guard’s patrols around the waters surrounding the islands were “an appropriate exercise of China’s sovereign right.” But Japan also claims it has a sovereign right to the islands — and it’s strengthening its military forces on Yonaguni and its sister islands in the Nansei chain, east of the Senkakus.
And all of this is a particular concern for Yonaguni residents like Kinjo, who worry about China’s intentions.
Their island sits just 68 miles (110 kilometers) off the coast of Taiwan, the self-ruled, democratic island Beijing also claims as its own, and they fear rising tensions could upend their peaceful community, especially if Beijing attempts to restrict access to the fishing grounds crucial to their livelihoods.
Quiet community with a front row seat to tensions
Occupied by the US during World War II, Yonaguni was returned to the Japanese in 1972 as part of Okinawa Prefecture, the band of 150 islands that curves to the south of Japan’s main islands in the East China Sea. It’s unquestionably Japanese, but sits closer to Taiwan than Tokyo — so close that on a clear day you can see the faint outline of Taiwan’s mountain ranges from Yonaguni’s western cape.
In the past, Yonaguni’s promixity to Taiwan and China has made the island, home to fewer than 2,000 people, a popular tourist destination with scuba divers and hikers. But its location also puts it on the frontline of geopolitical tensions as China ramps up its patrols of waters near the Senkaku Islands and displays its military power in the sea and skies near Taiwan.
Twenty years ago, Japan’s Ministry of Defense spotted fewer than 20 Chinese warships — destroyers and frigates — from its coast each year, but not within its contiguous zone, defined as within 24 nautical miles of its coast.
Since then, the number has more than quadrupled to a new high of 71 last year. Including Chinese Coast Guard ships, the figure rises to 110, according to the ministry.
China’s also increasing its presence in the skies around Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes into the island’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), prompting Taipei to deploy combat air patrol planes, issue radio warnings and activate air defense missile systems.
Japan has also scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese aircraft approaching its airspace.
China’s ruling Communist Party has long claimed Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never ruled over it. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has refused to rule out taking Taiwan by force — a prospect that would not only threaten peace in the region, but pose a national security risk to Japan, as 90% of its energy passes through waters near the island.
“The military invasion by Russia to Ukraine has made me concerned about the future of Taiwan and Yonaguni Island,” said local café owner Michiko Furumi. “I really worry about the future of my grandchildren.”
When Kinjo began fishing 25 years ago, he never saw Chinese ships in the Senkakus, but in the last few years, he’s had a growing number of what felt like dangerous encounters. “I have been intercepted with great force. Sometimes I would go there and they would go around me, and I would avoid them because it was dangerous, and then they would go around me again,” he said.
Kinjo is concerned that China’s claims to the Senkaku Islands and its ambitions to take Taiwan might one day extend to include Yonaguni. “Looking at China’s current moves, I have a strong sense of crisis that this island will eventually cease to be Japan.”
Japan’s expanding its defensive forces
As fears grow, the remote island where Kinjo and Furumi live is changing.
In response to the…
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