Latest news with #Minamitori
South China Morning Post
12-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Japan to boost air and sea surveillance around remote islands with mobile radar units
Japan is to deploy mobile radar units to enhance its surveillance capabilities at sea and in the air around its most remote islands, the announcement coming just days after two Chinese aircraft carrier groups were detected conducting drills off the east coast of mainland Japan. Advertisement Defence Minister Gen Nakatani outlined the new measure during a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, although no timeline for the deployment was given and the locations of the new radar units were not confirmed. Experts suggest it is possible that the deployments may be of additional units to islands that already have radar capabilities, such as the outlying islands of Okinawa prefecture and Minamitori Island, the most easterly point of Japan and close to where one of the Chinese fleets was seen operating at the weekend. It is unlikely that radar will be placed on the disputed islands in the East China Sea, which are controlled by Tokyo but are claimed by Beijing, which refers to the archipelago as the Diaoyu Islands. Tensions are already high around the uninhabited islands, with Chinese coastguard vessels a near-constant presence within Japan's territorial waters, and experts say any sort of military buildup would only inflame the situation further. The atoll of Okinotorishima, Japan's most southerly point. Photo: Japan's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry/AFP The atoll of Okinotorishima might be under consideration, although that could also prove to be contentious. Advertisement The island lies 1,080km south of Tokyo but only has 9.44 square metres of land above water, and that is only because it has been raised with concrete blocks. Nevertheless, the atoll is Japan's most southerly point and enables Japan to claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covering the surrounding 400,000 sq km of ocean.
South China Morning Post
12-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Japan to boost air and sea surveillance around remote islands with mobile radar units
Japan is to deploy mobile radar units to enhance its surveillance capabilities at sea and in the air around its most remote islands, the announcement coming just days after two Chinese aircraft carrier groups were detected conducting drills off the east coast of mainland Japan. Advertisement Defence Minister Gen Nakatani outlined the new measure during a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, although no timeline for the deployment was given and the locations of the new radar units were not confirmed. Experts suggest it is possible that the deployments may be of additional units to islands that already have radar capabilities, such as the outlying islands of Okinawa prefecture and Minamitori island, the most easterly point of Japan and close to where one of the Chinese fleets was seen operating at the weekend. It is unlikely that radar will be placed on the disputed islands in the East China Sea, which are controlled by Tokyo but are claimed by Beijing, which refers to the archipelago as the Diaoyu Islands. Tensions are already high around the uninhabited islands, with Chinese coastguard vessels a near-constant presence within Japan's territorial waters, and experts say any sort of military buildup would only inflame the situation further. The atoll of Okinotorishima, Japan's most southerly point. Photo: Japan's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry / AFP The atoll of Okinotorishima might be under consideration, although that could also prove to be contentious. Advertisement The island lies 1,080km south of Tokyo but only has 9.44 square metres of land above water, and that is only because it has been raised with concrete blocks. Nevertheless, the atoll is Japan's most southerly point and enables Japan to claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covering the surrounding 400,000 sq km of ocean.
South China Morning Post
10-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Japan spots Chinese navy's show of force in west Pacific amid maritime row
China 's Liaoning aircraft carrier has for the first time ventured into the easternmost edge of Japan 's exclusive economic zone, in what is seen as a show of force aimed at Tokyo, Washington and the broader region. The Liaoning – Beijing's first aircraft carrier – and at least three accompanying warships were spotted on Saturday around 300km southwest of Minamitori, a remote Japanese island in the western Pacific, which serves as a bulwark for Tokyo to assert its maritime claims. The group, which includes two guided-missile destroyers and a fast combat support ship, appeared to be conducting air operations, with fighter jets and helicopters landing on and taking off from the carrier on Sunday, national broadcaster NHK reported. Analysts believe the fleet may have been accompanied by a Chinese submarine. The manoeuvres mark the first known operation by a Chinese carrier group in a zone long considered a vital part of Japan's defence boundaries and a key buffer between China and US military outposts, such as those in Guam and Hawaii. Analysts suggest the fleet is showing its capabilities and reach in a new area targeted at Beijing's rivals. 'Just a few years ago, China would not have put a naval group into the Pacific, so it is now showing that it is willing and able to do just that,' said Masayuki Masuda, director of Chinese studies at the National Institute of Defence Studies in Tokyo.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Chinese aircraft carrier group enters waters near Japan's easternmost island for first time
A Chinese aircraft carrier group has entered an area of Japan's territorial waters for the first time, prompting concern in Tokyo over China's expanding naval reach. The Liaoning carrier, accompanied by two missile destroyers and a supply ship, entered Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Saturday evening, Japan's defence ministry said, before exiting to conduct military drills. The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, did not say if the government had lodged a formal protest, saying only that it had 'conveyed an appropriate message to the Chinese side'. 'We will do our utmost to perform our warning and surveillance duties at sea and in the air,' he added, according to the Kyodo news agency. The incursion into Pacific waters about 300km south-west of Minamitori island will add to concern in Tokyo and Washington about China's increasingly assertive naval and air activity in and around Japanese waters. The countries are embroiled in a longstanding territorial dispute over the Senkakus – uninhabited islets in the east China Sea that are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu. This is the first time, however, that a Chinese vessel has entered that part of Japan's EEZ – an area within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coastline – a defence ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse. 'We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,' the spokesperson said. After leaving the EEZ, the Chinese carrier group conducted landing and take-off drills involving fighter jets and helicopters, the ministry said, adding that Japan had deployed a warship, Haguro, to monitor the situation. Minamitori, the easternmost point of the Japanese archipelago, is surrounded by large deposits of rare metals. Last year, experts from the Nippon Foundation and Tokyo University said about 200m tonnes of manganese nodules rich in rare metals existed on the seabed near the island. No civilians live on Minamitori, located about 1,900km south-east of Tokyo, but it hosts a small number of personnel from the meteorological agency, the self-defence forces and the coast guard. Saturday's incident was the latest in a series of incursions by Chinese vessels into Japanese waters. Last month, the Liaoning sailed between two southern islands inside a different region of Japan's EEZ. In September last year the same carrier group sailed between Yonaguni and Iriomote – two Japanese islands near Taiwan – and entered Japan's contiguous waters, an area up to 24 nautical miles from its coast. Japan's government condemned the move at the time as 'unacceptable' and voiced 'serious concerns' to Beijing.
Bloomberg
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Chinese Aircraft Carrier Seen Operating Deeper Into Pacific
A Chinese aircraft carrier made one of its deepest forays into the Pacific Ocean over the weekend as Beijing continues to project its military power further from its shores. The Liaoning and three other Chinese naval vessels were seen on Saturday around 300 kilometers (some 185 miles) southwest of the remote, uninhabited Japanese island of Minamitori, according to a statement from Japan's Joint Chief of Staff.
