Fearing China clash, Japan asks fishermen to avoid flashpoint islands

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 - known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China - 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 by Reuters, 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 flashpoint in relations between the two Asian powers. Ties have deteriorated since Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi angered China in November by commenting on how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

US President Donald Trump later that month asked Takaichi, a staunch nationalist who became prime minister in October, not to further inflame the tensions. Reuters couldn't determine whether the pleas to the fishermen were ordered by Takaichi or linked to the appeal from the United States, Japan's security backer.

Takaichi's office and Japan's foreign ministry declined to address questions about the requests to fishermen. The foreign ministry said in a statement that the islands were an inherent part of Japan's territory and that it had repeatedly lodged diplomatic protests over Chinese incursions.

The warnings issued to fishermen illustrate a catch-22 for Tokyo: Fishing underlines Japan's control of the islands but risks triggering a more serious confrontation with Chinese coast guard vessels that could escalate rapidly, according to more than a dozen people interviewed by Reuters, including fishermen, Japanese officials and security analysts. Yet a pullback may lead China to more assertively press its claims, some of these people said.

China's foreign ministry told Reuters some right-wing Japanese had repeatedly entered the waters of the islands "in the name of 'fishing' to provoke and cause trouble", adding that maritime issues should be addressed through dialogue and consultation.

A Trump administration official declined to address questions about the president's November call with Takaichi but said the US opposed unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea.

Small incidents can 'lead to war'

As tensions with China flared in November, the pleas to fishermen began.

Hiroaki Hayashi, a businessman who chairs a nationalist group that helps fund Nakama's fishing trips, told Reuters he received a request from a Japanese coast guard official to stop Nakama from going on a planned voyage at the end of that month. Nakama reluctantly opted to steer clear, Hayashi said.

Another fisherman, Kazushi Kinjo, 53, said he had been planning to fish around the islands during a week-long voyage that started on 26 November. But just before he set sail, and while at sea, he received calls from multiple officials urging him to avoid the Senkaku islands.

"They've never said anything like that to me before," he said, declining to identify the officials. Kinjo said he briefly transited the waters around the islands on the way back to his home port but didn't stop to fish.

A few weeks later, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama - previously an adviser to the Senkaku Islands Defence Association, the nationalist group that supports Nakama - hosted the fisherman in Tokyo on 19 December.

During their 20-minute meeting, she asked about his previous visits to the islands and remarked that "small incidents can grow bigger and lead to war", Nakama said. He interpreted the message as a request to stay away, though she didn't say so directly, he said.

"What she was really saying was that she didn't want me to go," Nakama told Reuters as small waves rocked his boat in his home port of Ishigaki, where he serves as a local councillor.

Katayama's office declined to comment on the meeting. The Japan Coast Guard said it informs relevant parties about the security situation in waters surrounding the islands as necessary, but declined to discuss specifics.

Ishigaki Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama said Japanese officials appeared concerned about the risk that fishermen could be detained or subjected to inspections by Chinese authorities during a period of heightened tensions with Beijing.

"If someone should actually be detained it would escalate into a much bigger international issue, so I think that is what the government wants to avoid," he told Reuters at his office.

China in recent years has stepped up efforts to enforce its sweeping maritime claims, notably in repeated confrontations with Philippine vessels in which Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons.

The last major maritime dispute between China and Japan erupted in 2010, after Japan's coast guard detained the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japanese vessels near the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Relations soured further in 2012 when Japan nationalised several of the then-privately owned islands.

Washington has committed to defending the islands under its security treaty with Japan, meaning any clash there risks drawing in the United States.

"It's kind of the touch paper for further deterioration between Japan and China, because China is really pushing its claims on the islands. It is phenomenally tense around there at the moment," said Robert Ward, Japan chair at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Chinese coast guard ships were spotted near the islands on a record 357 days last year, according to Japan's coast guard. The islands lie more than 300 kilometres from mainland China, about 150 kilometres from Japan's nearest inhabited territory, and about 170 kilometres from Taiwan, which also claims them.

Good fishing

Fishing has long been associated with the islands.

After Japan first claimed them in the late 19th century, a skipjack tuna processing plant was established on the main Uotsuri Island until it was abandoned in the 1930s.

In 1977, before Beijing began more assertively pressing its claims and scaring off fishermen, there were at least 164 Japanese fishing trips to the islands, according to a Japanese government-commissioned research report.

Last year, there were only eight documented visits by Japanese fishing vessels, down from 18 in 2024, according to the Japan Coast Guard.

Nakama and his nationalist backers say they are determined to reverse the decline in fishing around the islands, arguing that such activity helps demonstrate Japan's control.

Paul Midford, a professor of international studies at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama, said while that argument has merit, it can lead to escalation as both sides try to outdo each other to demonstrate control.

Yet a complete lack of Japanese economic activity could invite China to flood the area with its own ships, said IISS's Ward. "The need for Japan to keep showing it has a pulse in the Senkaku Islands is really important," he said.

Kinjo said his motivation is money, not politics.

"I earn my income there... a substantial income," he said, describing the seas as a treasure trove of red snapper, a local delicacy.

While rough winter seas may help keep fishermen away for now, Kinjo and Nakama said they were determined to return soon, despite the risks.

"I'll go there for as long as I have this boat. I'll keep on going," Nakama said, as he sat on an ice box on the deck of his ship.