Japanese fishermen who regularly sail to waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands have recently been urged by officials to steer clear of the area, as Tokyo seeks to avoid a potential diplomatic and security escalation with
China in the East China Sea.
The requests began late last year and involve local fishermen long associated with voyages seen as reinforcing Japan’s control over the uninhabited islets, according to those involved and others familiar with the matter.
Quiet shift in approach
Hitoshi Nakama, 76, considers himself a frontline defender of Japan’s territorial claims, frequently navigating around
Chinese coast guard vessels to fish in the resource-rich waters. However, he said that since late last year, Japanese officials have been discreetly asking him and other fishermen to avoid the remote outcrops, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, to prevent a diplomatic clash with Beijing.
The requests, reported by Reuters, mark a change from previous years when Tokyo tacitly tolerated such trips. Some fishermen have viewed these voyages as a way to assert Japan’s administration of the islands and surrounding seas.
The islands are administered by Japan but also claimed by China and have long been a point of friction between the two countries. Relations have worsened since Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi angered China in November by commenting on how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
US President Donald Trump later that month asked Takaichi, a staunch nationalist who became prime minister in October, not to further inflame tensions. The news agency could not determine whether the requests to fishermen were ordered by Takaichi or linked to the appeal from the United States, Japan’s security backer.
Takaichi’s office and Japan’s foreign ministry declined to answer questions about the requests. The foreign ministry said in a statement that the islands are an inherent part of Japan’s territory and that it has repeatedly lodged diplomatic protests over Chinese incursions.
A strategic dilemma for Tokyo
The warnings to fishermen highlight a dilemma for Japan. Fishing activity underscores Japan’s administration of the islands but risks confrontations with Chinese coast guard vessels that could escalate quickly, according to more than a dozen people interviewed by Reuters, including fishermen, Japanese officials and security analysts. At the same time, reducing activity may encourage China to press its claims more forcefully, some of those people said.
China’s foreign ministry told Reuters that some right-wing Japanese had repeatedly entered the waters of the islands “in the name of ‘fishing’ to provoke and cause trouble”, adding that maritime issues should be resolved through dialogue and consultation.
A Trump administration official declined to address questions about the president’s November call with Takaichi but said the US opposed unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea.
Small incidents can ‘lead to war’
As tensions with China rose in November, the appeals to fishermen began.
Hiroaki Hayashi, a businessman who chairs a nationalist group that helps fund Nakama’s fishing trips, said a Japanese coast guard official asked him to stop Nakama from making a planned voyage at the end of that month. Hayashi said Nakama reluctantly agreed to avoid the trip.
Another fisherman, Kazushi Kinjo, 53, said he had planned to fish around the islands during a week-long voyage beginning on November 26. Just before departure and while at sea, he received calls from several officials urging him to avoid the Senkaku islands.
“They’ve never said anything like that to me before,” he said, declining to name the officials. Kinjo said he briefly passed through waters near the islands on his return journey but did not stop to fish.
A few weeks later, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, previously an adviser to the Senkaku Islands Defence Association, hosted Nakama in Tokyo on December 19.
During their 20-minute meeting, she asked about his earlier visits and remarked that “small incidents can grow bigger and lead to war”, Nakama said. He took this as a signal to stay away, although she did not say so directly.
“What she was really saying was that she didn’t want me to go,” Nakama said from his boat in his home port of Ishigaki, where he serves as a local councillor.
Katayama’s office declined to comment. The Japan Coast Guard said it informs relevant parties about the security situation in waters around the islands when necessary but would not discuss details.
Ishigaki Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama said officials appeared concerned that fishermen could be detained or inspected by Chinese authorities during heightened tensions.
“If someone should actually be detained it would escalate into a much bigger international issue, so I think that is what the government wants to avoid,” he said.
Long-running maritime dispute
China has in recent years increased efforts to enforce its maritime claims, including repeated confrontations with Philippine vessels in which Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons.
The last major maritime dispute between China and Japan occurred in 2010, when Japan’s coast guard detained the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japanese vessels near the islands. Relations deteriorated further in 2012 when Japan nationalised several of the then privately owned islands.
Washington has pledged to defend the islands under its security treaty with Japan, meaning any clash could draw in the United States.
“It’s kind of the touch paper for further deterioration between Japan and China, because China is really pushing its claims on the islands. It is phenomenally tense around there at the moment,” said Robert Ward, Japan chair at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Chinese coast guard ships were seen near the islands on a record 357 days last year, according to Japan’s coast guard. The islands are more than 300 kilometres from mainland China, about 150 kilometres from Japan’s nearest inhabited territory, and about 170 kilometres from Taiwan, which also claims them.
Good fishing
Fishing has long been linked to the islands.
After Japan first claimed them in the late 19th century, a skipjack tuna processing plant operated on the main Uotsuri Island until it was abandoned in the 1930s.
In 1977, before Beijing began more forcefully pressing its claims and deterring fishermen, there were at least 164 Japanese fishing trips to the islands, according to a government-commissioned research report.
Last year there were only eight documented visits by Japanese fishing vessels, down from 18 in 2024, Japan Coast Guard data show.
Nakama and his nationalist supporters say they want to reverse the decline, arguing that fishing demonstrates Japan’s administration of the area.
Paul Midford, a professor of international studies at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama, said that while the argument has merit, it can contribute to escalation as both sides try to show control.
Ward said a complete absence of Japanese economic activity could encourage China to send more of its own ships. “The need for Japan to keep showing it has a pulse in the Senkaku Islands is really important,” he said.
Kinjo said his motivation is financial rather than political.
“I earn my income there… a substantial income,” he said, describing the waters as rich in red snapper, a local delicacy.
Despite winter seas that may limit trips for now, both Kinjo and Nakama said they plan to return.
“I’ll go there for as long as I have this boat. I’ll keep on going,” Nakama said.
End of Article
