Japan will deploy missiles to a tiny island near Taiwan within five years, its defence minister has said, in a move that is likely to inflame tensions with China.
The surface-to-air missiles, which are capable of shooting down aircraft and ballistic missiles, will be located on Yonaguni – Japan’s westernmost island – by March 2031, Shinjiro Koizumi said.
“It depends on the progress of preparing facilities, but we are planning for fiscal 2030,” Koizumi told reporters, giving details about the deployment’s schedule for the first time.
Koizumi made the announcement amid a diplomatic standoff between Tokyo and Beijing over remarks by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, about Taiwan’s security.
Takaichi told MPs in November that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could lead to the involvement of her country’s self-defence forces (SDF) if the conflict posed an existential threat to Japan.
The remarks, which Takaichi has refused to withdraw, prompted China to urge its citizens not to travel to Japan, as well as restrictions on “dual use” exports to companies in Japan that Chinese officials say are helping to advance the country’s “remilitarisation”.
Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to annex Taiwan – a self-governing democracy it regards as a Chinese province – under what it calls “reunification”.
Japan’s defence ministry announced plans to bolster defences on remote western islands in 2022, as it shifted its security focus from threats from Russia in the north to countering Chinese military activity in the East China Sea.
Yonaguni, which already hosts an SDF facility, lies 100km from Taiwan, and residents fear that they could quickly become caught up in a military confrontation in the region.
Koizumi, who visited the island in November, said the ministry would explain the deployment to Yonaguni’s 1,500 residents next week. In 2015 they voted in favour of hosting an SDF base by 632 votes to 445. About 160 personnel keep watch on Chinese naval movements around the clock via radar sites positioned on a mountain peak.
But many locals are concerned that Yonaguni, known for its miniature horses and hammerhead sharks, is being turned into a military fortress. The SDF base opened in 2016, and there are plans to station an electronic warfare air-defence unit on the island during the next fiscal year, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Tokyo and Beijing are also embroiled in a row over repeated intrusions by Chinese vessels into Japanese waters around the Senkaku islands.
The uninhabited islets, located about 150km from Yonaguni, are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are called the Diaoyu.
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