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Japan to build lighthouse on atolls

Japan's coastguard said yesterday it hoped to build a lighthouse on a remote atoll in the Pacific in a move that could reinforce a Japanese claim in one of its disputes with China.

The coastguard wants to set aside a special budget to construct a solar-powered lighthouse on Okinotori, two tiny uninhabited islands 1,700km south of Tokyo.

"While nothing has been decided, we believe the construction is necessary as part of maritime safety measures in the area," a coastguard spokesman said, denying any link between the plan and Japan's territorial claim.

But the Sankei Shimbun said the construction will help the international community recognize Japanese sovereignty over the two islets, which are about 11km in circumference.

The Japanese government plans to finish building the ?100 million (US$920,000) lighthouse by the end of March 2007, the conservative daily said.

Also known as the Douglas Reef, the atolls have been extensively eroded and only several square meters of the tops of two rocks remain above surface at high tide.

The lighthouse is intended to alert the some 440 ships that operate near the atoll a year to the rocks.

At least four ships have run aground in the area in the past 10 years, the newspaper said.

China has insisted Okinotori is barren, uninhabitable rock and thus not regarded under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as a territorial entity.

The legal designation allows Japan to set its 200-nautical-mile (370km) exclusive economic zone around the islets, notably giving fishing rights to Tokyo.

A Chinese marine survey ship was spotted near the reef last December, prompting Tokyo to protest to Beijing.

Tokyo's nationalist Governor Shintaro Ishihara traveled in May to Okinotori, which is administered by the metropolis. He spent about 45 minutes on the islets, where he waved a Japanese flag before accompanying journalists and released fish.
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