Tokyo's top representative to Taipei said yesterday he had received an "inquiry" from Taiwanese officials into the validity of a recent report that Japan was moving to reinforce its sovereignty claim over the disputed Tiaoyutai Islands.
Katsuhisa Uchida, chief representative of the Taipei Office of the Interchange Association, visited the foreign ministry yesterday afternoon following a report on Wednesday that Japan had leased three islands in the Tiaoyutai group from a Okinawa-based man.
"I have an inquiry from Mr. Kau," Uchida said, referring to vice minister of foreign affairs Michael Kau (高英茂). "I'd like to take it back to my government."
The Japanese diplomat said it would take him "some time to come back to answer" Kau's questions into the disputed report because Japan of New Year's holidays.
Uchida declined to confirm the report published in the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun. The report said Japan had leased three uninhabited islands off its southwestern coast from a private owner in a bid to reinforce its position in a territorial dispute with Taiwan and China.
The Tiaoyutai island group, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, is located 200km north-east of Taiwan.
The report was also raised in the Legislative Yuan yesterday, with some questioning General Chen Chao-ming (陳肇敏), deputy defense minister for armaments, whether Taiwan could defeat Japan should a military confrontation erupt between the two countries over the islands.
Chen said nobody would take a military conflict lightly.
"The government will certainly seek a solution to the Tiaoyutai sovereignty dispute through various peaceful means. And if a war were to break out, the military will undoubtedly do its utmost to protect the nation's territorial integrity," Chen said.
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) told a legislative subcommittee that Taiwan has over the years reiterated its sovereignty claim over the Tiaoyutais.
"Our claim is undisputed, " Yu said, adding that the islands are under the jurisdiction of the northeastern county of Ilan.
Yu reiterated Taiwan's four basic principles in dealing with the issue.
He said the island group's sovereignty belongs to Taiwan, and Taiwan is willing to negotiate the issue with Japan through rational, diplomatic means.
Yu said Taiwan will not cooperate with China in handling the issue, and protecting the rights of Taiwanese fishermen would be the top concern in any negotiations.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) also reiterated Taiwan's sovereignty claim over the islands.
Japan declared the Senkakus its territory in 1895, but fishing rights in the area were given to the prefecture of Taipei during the half-century of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan.
When a peace treaty was signed between Taipei and Tokyo in 1952, Taiwan declared the Tiaoyutais part of Taiwan retroceded to China after World War II, though the islets were under American control. The US returned the Senkakus together with the Okinawa Islands to Japan in 1970.
After Tokyo signed a new treaty on establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1972, China began claiming sovereignty over the Tiaoyutais.
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