Wed, Jan 08, 2003 page8

• Island dispute should not harm ties

  • By Lee Ming-Juinn 李明峻
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  The sovereignty dispute over the Tiaoyutai Islands has recently been reignited after the Japanese media reported that Japan's Ministry of Home Affairs has leased three of the islands from a private Japanese owner.

  In Japanese official documents, the Tiaoyutai Islands are known as the Senkaku islands and include five islets -- Uotsuri-shima (3.6km2), Kita-kojima (0.26km2, Minami-kojima (0.32km2), Kuba-shima (0.87km2), and Taishou-jima (0.04km2) -- as well as three reefs for which, because of their size, no territorial waters can be marked on the map.

  According to Japan, around 1885 a Japanese citizen, Tatsushiro Koga, began to invest in infrastructure such as a boat moorings, warehouses and a reservoir on the Tiaoyutai Islands. On Jan. 14, 1895, Japan declared the Tiaoyutai Islands terra nullius -- "no man's land;" land over which no previous sovereignty has been exercised -- and decided at a Cabinet meeting to occupy them. The islands became government land.

  In the following year, the Japanese government leased Uotsuri-shima, Kita-kojima, Minami-kojima, and Kuba-shima to Koga for 30 years at no cost. In 1918 Tatsushiro Koga died and his son succeeded him in the work of developing the islands. In 1926, after the 30 year lease had expired, the Japanese government changed the arrangement to require an annual renewal of the lease and imposed a rental fee. In 1932, Koga junior entreated the Japanese government to sell the islands, purchasing four of them himself. The relatively small Taishou-jima remained in the hands of the government.

  In the past, political groups from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan have repeatedly tried to land on the Tiaoyutai Islands. The right wing Japan Youth Federation also created a stir by building lighthouses on them.

  Meanwhile, Japanese government policy designating land in Okinawa for use as a US military base encountered grass-roots resistance in the form of a "micro landlord movement" -- numerous individuals each buying a tiny plot of the disputed land and thereby complicating government negotiations to obtain use of the land. In light of these incidents, the Japanese government is seeking to manage the "territory" of the Tiaoyutai Islands legally, effectively and securely and avoid any transfer of ownership or lease of the islands to a third party by their current owner.

  Accordingly, it has decided to obtain "leasing rights" to the three principal islands through the Ministry of Home Affairs. In this way it can effectively prevent any third party from legally landing on the islands or building on them.

  Japan's Ministry of Home Affairs is now leasing the three islands of Kita-kojima, Minami-kojima, and Uotsuri-shima. The legal leasing procedures were completed last October, and the lease is effective from April 1 of last year to March 31 of this year. The cost of the lease is ?22.56 million (US$183,000) per year, and the contract will be renewed annually.

  There are a number of points that we should keep in mind while considering this issue.

  First, the Tiaoyutai Islands are geographically affiliated with Taiwan (as an extension of the Tatun mountain range). This point has been acknowledged by both China and Japan. Their status, therefore, should be the same as that of Taiwan. In other words, only the country with sovereignty over Taiwan has the right to claim ownership over the Tiaoyutai Islands.

  This is the basic principle in resolving the Tiaoyutais problem. The reason why the US mistakenly handed the Tiaoyutai Islands over to Japan in 1972 was that during the period of Japanese rule on Taiwan, the Tiaoyutais were considered part of Okinawa county for administrative purposes. In fact, all claim over the Tiaoyutai Islands should have been renounced by Japan as part of the 1951 San Francisco Treaty in which Japan renounced its claim over "Formosa and the Pescadores."

  Next, a nation's territorial sovereignty is one thing and its laws on private land ownership are quite another. Prior to World War II, Japan had sovereignty over Taiwan.

  At that time, therefore, Japan may well have been legally entitled to sell the islands to a private owner. But after the war, Japan unequivocally renounced any claim over Taiwan in the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Naturally, when it did so, it lost any claim to sovereignty over the islands.

  The recent leasing registration has no immediate effect on the sovereignty issue. But if the sovereignty issue drags on for a long time without solution, the current lease will become a piece of historical evidence in support of Japan's case.

  It should also be noted that only a country can assert a claim of territorial sovereignty. Given Taiwan's current national status, there would be difficulties in trying to settle the matter by means of an agreement between the countries involved or through international arbitration.

  In its heyday, Uotsuri-shima was home to 250 people. Now it is uninhabited. After World War II, the US had a mandate over the islands. In 1972, the islands were handed over to Japan together with Okinawa. In 1992 China clearly marked the islands as part of its own territory in the Territorial Waters Statutes (領海法) it formulated that year and in 1999 Taiwan included the territory within its territorial waters. This is clearly disputed territory.

  Territorial disputes are long-term problems. The solution is generally arrived at through an agreement between the countries involved or international arbitration and it usually involves maintaining the stability of the territory in question.

  Taiwan's approach therefore should be to protest Japan's control at regular intervals (by delivering letters of protest or releasing official statements) in order to confirm that there is a dispute so that it can be settled by an agreement or international arbitration in the future.

  Other actions may serve only to increase obstacles to developing Taiwan-Japan relations and would be of no benefit in terms of improving Taiwan's status in the international arena.

  Lee Ming-juinn is an assistant researcher at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University.

  Translated by Ethan Harkness
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