The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will soon seek the central government's OK to send a party to the Senkaku Islands, some of which it plans to buy from a Saitama businessman who holds title to the territory, a senior Tokyo official said Wednesday.
The uninhabited isles in the East China Sea are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan. The central government, which leases four of the five main islets from the owner, and prohibits landings in principle, also plans to buy some of the islands and reportedly nationalize the chain, which is technically part of Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture. |