A plan proposed by Japan to move its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) westward, overlapping parts of Taiwan’s own ADIZ, is “unacceptable,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Spokesman James Chang (章計平) said the ministry had relayed the Taiwanese government’s position on the matter to the Japanese government through Japan’s Interchange Association in Taipei, which represents Japanese interests in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
Taiwan will keep a close watch on how Japan responds to the matter, he said.
Japan’s Sankei Shinbum reported on Thursday that Tokyo intends to redraw its ADIZ for Yonaguni Island by moving the zone westward in the middle of next month.
Yonaguni is Japan’s westernmost territory, lying 108km from Taiwan’s east coast. The airspace above the western two-thirds of the island now falls under Taiwan’s ADIZ.
An ADIZ differs from a flight information zone in that any aircraft using the airspace needs to obtain advance approval from the appropriate authority. Unapproved flights can be viewed as an incursion.
The ministry confirmed on Thursday that it had recently received such a request from the Japanese government through Japan’s Interchange Association.
The ministry said at the time that it was studying the matter with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the ministry rejected Japan’s proposal, saying that the Taiwanese government found Japan’s decision unacceptable because rezoning the ADIZ would involve Taiwan’s airspace and would affect the integrity of the nation’s sovereignty.
It also expressed regret over what it said was Japan’s failure to fully communicate with Taiwan before coming to such a decision.
The ministry said the current Taiwan-Japan ADIZ demarcation line had been drawn during the US military occupation of Okinawa after World War II.
The US demarcation line left the area east of 123 degrees longitude to Japan and the area west of the line to Taiwan. The demarcation line remains valid today, the ministry said.
Some political observers said the move could further chill once close but informal Taipei-Tokyo relations that have become more distant since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008 and courted stronger ties with China.
Japan and Taiwan also dispute the eight uninhabited East China Sea islands known as the Diaoyutai (釣魚台) islands, called the Senkakus by the Japanese, which are rich in fisheries and possibly undersea natural gas reserves. The issue flared in 2008, when a Taiwanese fishing boat sank after colliding with a Japanese coast guard vessel.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY REUTERS AND CNA
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