ISHIGAKI, OKINAWA PREF. ¨C Hitoshi Nakama, 76, sees himself as a frontline defender of Japan¡¯s claims to disputed islands in the East China Sea, where he regularly evades Chinese coast guard ships to harvest the bountiful waters. But since late last year, some Japanese officials have been discreetly urging Nakama and his peers to steer clear of the remote outcrops ¡ª known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu in China ¡ª to avoid escalating a diplomatic clash with Beijing, according to Nakama and three other people with knowledge of the requests.
The requests, reported for the first time, signal an abrupt shift after years in which Tokyo tacitly accepted such trips, used by some fishermen as a way to assert Japan¡¯s control of the uninhabited islets and surrounding seas. The islands, administered by Japan but also claimed by China, have long been a flash point in relations between the two Asian powers.
Ties have deteriorated since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi angered China in November by commenting on how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. U.S. President Donald Trump later that month asked Takaichi not to further inflame the tensions. ?It could not be ?determined whether the pleas to the fishermen were ordered by Takaichi or linked to the appeal from the United States, Japan¡¯s security backer.
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