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Okino Torishima

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Okino Torishima (沖ノ鳥島), formerly called Parece Vela (Spanish for "it looks like a sail") is the southernmost island of Japan, at 22°49′ N 136°07′ E, 1 740 km south of Tokyo, or 534 km Southeast of Oki Daito, the closest Japanese island, or 567 km WSE of Minami Iōjima, the closest of the Ogasawara Islands, to which it administratively belongs. The Japanese meaning of the name is "remote bird island". It is second most remote island of Japan, after Minami Torishima. It consists of three tiny individual islets:

 Higashikojima (東小島, "Eastern Islet", area 1.6 m²)  Kitakojima (北小島, "Northern Islet", nevertheless rather in the West, area 6.4 m²)  Minamikojima (南小島, "Southern Islet", an artificial islet)

The islets, which rise only 0.1 to 0.2 m above high tide, are in the western part of a lagoon that is surrounded by an atoll-like submerged coral reef, over which the waves break, and that extends 4.6 km East-West and 1.7 km North-South, with an area of roughly 5 km² within the rim of the reef. A fourth, even smaller rock is located at the eastern end of the lagoon. There is an entrance into the lagoon from the south.

The status as an island (instead of an uninhabitable rock) unter International Law is debated by China and other nations, since it would give Japan a huge Exclusive Economic Zone around it, with an area of more than 430 000 km².

In order to prevent the island from submersion caused by erosion, an embankment building project was launched in 1987, and Higashikojima and Kitakojima were surrounded by concrete. Currently, Japan carries out research and observation of the island, as well as repair work on the embankment of the islets. A platform on stilts, with a helicopter landing pad has been erected in a shallow part of the lagoon between Higashikojima and Minamikojima.

Administratively, the island is considered part of Ogasawara village, Tokyo. In 1939, the construction of a Naval Base was started by Japan, but suspended in 1941, at the start of the World War II hostilities in the Pacific.

We also manage

Okinotorishima Island, Japan's southernmost island located about 1,700 km from Tokyo, is comprised of two smaller islands, Higashikojima Island and Kitakojima Island, and is an important island in determining Japan's economic sphere of influence. Thus, in order to prevent the island from submersion caused by erosion, embankment work was launched in 1987. Currently, we implement research and observation of the island, as well as repair works for the embankment. Repairs to Embankment Concrete Ten years after the original work was completed, the embankments have peeled and cracked in several places due to the harsh weather conditions that pound this island. Repairs are being performed on the concrete to control embankment deterioration and to facilitate maintenance.

Repairing cracks.

Cover Story: Making waves 06/14/2005

By ATSUHIKO IKEDA, The Asahi Shimbun To label the Okinotorishima islands small would simply not do them justice. Tiny, even minuscule, perhaps best describes these two uninhabited rocky outcrops that represent the southernmost point of Japan's territory.

But for such small players in an archipelago of several thousand islands, the Okinotorishima islands are surely making waves.

China calls the isles nothing more than specks of rock and is challenging Japan's claim that roughly 400,000 square kilometers of ocean surrounding the islands falls into its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

As far as Japan is concerned, no matter how small, the Okinotorishima islets are legitimate territory.

In fact, the isles are so small that they can be measured by the tatami mat.

Kitakojima island measures about 4 tatami and Higashikojima island, just a single tatami, or about 1.6 square meters.

But the isles do have an address: 1 and 2, Okinotorishima, Ogasawara village, Tokyo.

The brouhaha has been developing steadily since April last year, when China made clear its official "rock" view at a bilateral conference with Japan.

As if to prove its point, Beijing has repeatedly sent marine research vessels into the area to conduct underwater surveys without prior notice, much to the chagrin of the Japanese government-and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara.

In response, Ishihara, who is well-known for his anti-China rhetoric, inaugurated fishing operations based in Okinotorishima island in April. His plan naturally was backed by the Tokyo metropolitan government that he heads and which has jurisdiction over the area.

On May 20, the governor also made the 1,700-kilometer haul to the island to personally attest to the status of the Okinotorishima islands.

He switched from a chartered vessel to a smaller boat just off the island's coast, then stepped onto Higashikojima, kissing the island marker and hoisting a Hinomaru rising-sun flag he had brought along.

Back aboard the chartered vessel, Ishihara told reporters, "That is definitely an island. A tiny one, mind you, but it's our territory. Anyone got anything against that?"

Arranging to bring the inspection team of about 70 Tokyo government officials, scholars and officials from the local fishermen's cooperative association as well as residents from the village of Ogasawara to the island was no easy feat. Including reporters, the governor's entourage came close to 100 people.

As there are no regular ferries connecting the island, the group chartered a large vessel to cover the 900-kilometer journey from Chichijima island, the largest island within the Ogasawara archipelago.

They stayed just two hours-still, long enough for Ishihara to make his point.

"(Chinese vessels) are scouting the area making underwater surveys for their submarine mission," Ishihara said before taking a further shot: "I just don't like the Chinese Communist Party government."

According to the Foreign Ministry, China conducted four unwarranted investigations in the region in 2003, and nine during 2004.

Deciding enough was enough, an incensed Ishihara announced in December that the Tokyo metropolitan government planned to set up commercial activities within the EEZ to prove the island's productivity- whether profitable or not.

For fiscal 2005 alone, 500 million yen was allocated to the project. The Ogasawara fisheries cooperative was asked to collaborate, and a 19- ton trawler from Kochi Prefecture, complete with eight crew members, was signed to a one-year contract.

The trawler has already completed a couple of expeditions near the Okinotorishima islands, returning with about nine tons of tuna, mostly bincho, or albacore, which doesn't command the high prices that other types of tuna do.

But fishing is not the only economic activity planned for this tiny island. The construction of a power generation plant to make use of the differences in temperature between the warm surface and the cold ocean depths is another option.

The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that development of natural resources is allowed within a country's EEZ. In a plus for Tokyo, it also stipulates that consent from the country holding exclusive economic rights must be obtained before another country conducts maritime research within another's EEZ.

So is Okinotori an island or a couple of rocks?

UNCLOS defines an island as any naturally formed land that is surrounded by water and lies above the surface of the sea during high tide.

Japan is adamant that the Okinotorishima islands comply with these guidelines. However, erosion and rising sea levels could drown such claims in the future.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, during high tide, the two islets that make up Okinotorishima islands come very close to being submerged, with only around 20 centimeters remaining above water.

The sea territory is by no means insignificant. At 400,000 square kilometers, it exceeds Japan's land area of 380,000 square kilometers and is thus a valuable resource.

That's exactly why the government has since 1987 spent about 60 billion yen in shore protection work to prevent erosion and keep the island above sea level.

Ishihara states bluntly that the islets should be elevated to an issue of national importance.

After kissing a stone marker on the Okinotorishima islands, Ishihara said, "It would have been better if our prime minister had planted that kiss."

While informing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of the Tokyo metropolitan government's plans in regard to the Okinotorishima islands in January, Ishihara urged the central government to "do more."

The message apparently got through. The central government has agreed to install a radar on the island this month, ostensibly to monitor wave heights.

The radar will also be capable of tracking suspicious vessels that enter the territorial waters.

The construction of a lighthouse is also now being considered.

Ishihara's determined stance seems bound to keep the issue in the spotlight.

As a government official noted: "Whatever the Tokyo governor says and does-they are bound to be effective."

However, Ishihara may still face criticism for his actions.

The fishing ship and its crew was chartered at a cost of about 70 million yen. At least an additional 20 million yen or so will be needed to cover fuel costs.

Unless the fishermen start returning with more expensive mebachi bigeye tuna, subsidies will annually exceed 100 million yen a year.

One Tokyo government official said: "If we keep subsidizing the fishing program forever, taxpayers will start making a noise. But we know our governor is not after the fishing. His first and only goal is to prod the central government into action in order to protect the island (and our rights)."(IHT/Asahi: June 14,2005) Tokyo governor lands on islands at center of dispute with PRC

2005-05-21 / Associated Press /

Waving a Japanese rising sun flag, Tokyo's outspoken nationalist governor landed on a pair of Pacific islets at the center of a dispute with China yesterday, in a trip likely to aggravate already tense relations between the two nations.

Governor Shintaro Ishihara arrived at one of the cement- covered outcroppings after a one-day journey at sea and kissed a plaque bearing the islets' name: "Okinotorishima, Japan." He also released fish from a boat near the islet. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, right, surveys the area after landing on Higashi Kojima, one of TV networks aired footage of Ishihara referring to China as the two Okinotorishima islets, about 1,730km "Shina" - the derogatory term used during Japan's kilometers south of capital Tokyo, during an inspection tour yesterday./associated press occupation of the country in the 1930s and 40s.

"No matter what Shina says, we have all this here," he said, referring to the plaque and other construction on the islet. "We should show them that."

"We should think about ways to more actively use this territory for fishing as an economic activity," Ishihara told national broadcaster NHK, after snorkeling around the islet. He also said officials were considering plans to build an ocean thermal energy conversion facility - which would convert the heat naturally stored in seawater into energy - on top of the islet's reef.

China claims rights to oil and other undersea resources around Okinotorishima, arguing that the outcropping - which Japan has fortified with extensive cement embankments against the encroaching waves - is too small to qualify as an island that Japan can use to delineate its exclusive economic zone.

Japan, however, says the islets are full-fledged islands, meaning that Tokyo can lay exclusive claim to the natural resources 200 nautical miles from its shores into the Pacific. Okinotorishima is legally part of Tokyo, so Ishihara was there to back up Japan's side in the dispute.

On Thursday, Ishihara was welcomed by about a hundred villagers and members of the Self Defense Forces, when he arrived on Chichijima island on a SDF flying boat before switching to a chartered ship bound for Okinotorishima. Chichijima lies about 900 kilometers northeast of the disputed area.

Japan is gearing up efforts to claim its sovereignty over the islets.

Last week, Japan said it will construct a 1 meter by 1.5 meter billboard on one of the islets declaring in Japanese: "Okinotorishima, Japan's southernmost island ... managed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport."

The Transport Ministry also plans to build a helipad on a manmade structure just off Okinotorishima, about 1,730 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, during maintenance work in June.