Remote island ramps up defenses as tensions rise between Japan and China

There, fish are plentiful — and increasingly, so are Chinese Coast Guard ships.Chinese ships patrol the sea around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, an uninhabited island chain also claimed by China and Taiwan, near where Kinjo lives. The islands, which are known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and Diaoyutai in Taiwan, have become one of the focus points of increasing tensions in the region.”The bow of one of their ships was pointed straight at us, and they were chasing us. I don’t know for sure, but I also saw what looked like cannons,” the 50-year-old fisherman told CNN, as he described one of several encounters with the Chinese Coast Guard over the past few years.But Shigenori Takenishi, the head of the Yonaguni fishing cooperative, says too much is at stake to take any chances. “We need to increase our defense capabilities, including Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, but it alone will not be enough to protect Japan,” he said.”I believe that the only way to do this is to work closely with the US under the Japan-US Security Treaty Act and to enhance Japan’s own defense capabilities much further.”The US says the Senkakus fall under the US-Japan mutual defense treaty, which obligates Washington to defend them like any other part of Japanese territory. US President Joe Biden has also said the US would protect Taiwan, if needed, though the White House said the US had not altered its policy of “strategic ambiguity.”Takenishi says if China blocks access to fishing waters around the Senakakus, Yonaguni’s fishermen will lose their livelihoods, and the entire island will suffer.Fisherman Kinjo agrees. “If the Senkaku Islands are no longer in Japan, the territorial waters will become smaller, and since Japan is surrounded by sea, this will be a matter of life and death,” he said.Still, Kinjo says he has little choice but to stare down Chinese Coast Guard ships every time he goes out to sea. “Even if I do what I consider scary, I still have to go offshore for a living. I can’t stop working. I just do my work day in and day out,” he said.