Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, a fiery nationalist whose failed bid to buy a group of disputed islands ignited a crisis with China, is pushing ahead with a plan to build structures there to hammer home Japan’s claim, officials involved told Reuters.
Although such a move is not imminent, it would be certain to strain Japan’s already shaky relations with China and could prompt a rebuke from the Obama administration, which has urged both sides to ease tensions by setting aside the dispute.
Ishihara’s gambit appears aimed at forcing a new showdown in the island dispute with China. It is based on the view that Japan’s main opposition—the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)—is likely to take power in an election in the coming months and that it would be receptive to his hard-line policies, two officials close to Ishihara said.
Shintaro Ishihara is far from the euphemistic term fiery nationalist given his attitudes towards Japanese.
Simply put Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara is xenophobic and a racist yet the voters of Tokyo continue to reelect him.
.He decided to tell the world that the 3/11 earthquake was divine punishment for the arrogance of the Japanese people in that area. He was re-elected having said that.
He told the Self Defence Force that in a major Tokyo earthquake their role was not search and rescue but the slaughter of the sangokujin: the Chinese and Koreans
Kicking off this entire round of senkaku problems by deciding to try and purchase land that was already Japanese, knowing this would cause danger for Japanese citizens overseas and damage to Japanese business interests and property abroad.
“The funds will be used when something can be done together with the LDP,” said Santo, an Ishihara ally who had tried to broker Tokyo’s effort to buy the islands from the family that has owned them since the late 1970s.
Tokyo vice governor Inose added: “With an Ishiba or Abe government we could use the funds we have raised to build some kind of shelter for ships or a transmitter or lighthouse.”
What happens if following the next general election the Liberal Democratic Party regains control of the government and pursues these policies?
How would China react?
Given what happened in September with large scale anti-Japanese protests taking place across China how long would it take before the whole saga spiraled out of control and into a situation neither government is able to control.
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