Japan sets up police unit to help guard disputed islets

TOKYO, 03 Sept. - (ANA) - Japan is about to set up a special armed unit on its southern island of Okinawa amid a fresh row with China over sovereignty over a group of East China Sea islands.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday that the new police force will help boost Tokyo's capability to respond to situations on remote Japanese islands.

"Assuming scenarios that include illegal landing by an armed group, highly trained members equipped with sub-machine guns will be deployed," NHK reported.

Japan's National Police Agency, in a budget appropriation for the year from next April, has requested 159 additional officers in Okinawa and Fukuoka, another southern prefecture, to boost its response capabilities on remote islands.

This will be the first time a Japanese law enforcement agency has set up a unit in the region to help defend the islands, NHK added.

The group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China are the centerpiece of a long-running territorial dispute between the two East Asian heavyweights with a long history of unresolved conflict.

Ties between the two sides deteriorated after Tokyo nationalized part of the strategically-important and resource-rich islands in 2012.

In the same year, a group of Chinese activists landed on one of the disputed islets and raised a Chinese flag, to the outrage of Japan.

Japan claims China is "unilaterally" stepping up its military activities in the East China Sea

China maintains that it has indisputable sovereignty over the islands.

Analysts say the recent move is part of Japan's efforts to boost military and coastguard presence around the disputed islands located approximately 420km south of Okinawa. - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/03 September 2019 - - -