Rent-an-island

[thomas]

Wouldn't that be a good solution for Sakhalin too? In case anyone wonders: it's all about fishing rights.

Japanese government rents disputed southern islands

Japan's government has rented three tiny, uninhabited islands from their private owner in an apparent attempt to boost its claim over the territories in a dispute with China and Taiwan, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The islands are part of a chain of five islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyutai in Chinese that are surrounded by rich fishing waters. They are located between Japan's southern island of Okinawa and Taiwan.

The Japanese government began renting the islands in April 2002 after signing a 22.6 million yen (US$188,300) one-year lease with the Japanese owner, Yukihiro Kurihara, said the Yomiuri newspaper, citing an unidentified government source.

=> http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/1/1/latest/9378Japaneseg&sec=latest

Rented islands strain Sino-Japanese relations

Sino-Japanese relations may be further strained by a new flare-up in sovereignty disputes over the Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyu in China.

=> http://asia.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/01/China.islets/index.html

 

[thomas]

More info on the island deal.

Japan Leasing Disputed Southern Island for U.S.

Japan has been leasing one of a chain of disputed islands off its southwestern coast from a private landlord since 1972 to let the U.S. military use it as a practice area, a government official said Wednesday. [...]

The Japanese government considers itself the owner of one island in the group, Taishojima, while the other four are privately held. It emerged last week that Japan had leased the islands of Kita-kojima, Minami-kojima and Uotsurishima to try to tighten its control over them.

"Leasing the islands doesn't mean we can prevent them being sold, but we would at least be consulted in the process," said Tamotsu Mizutani, an official at the Ministry of Public Management, which handles the lease.

=> http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/4897209.htm