In a move expected to further ratchet up tensions with Beijing in the East China Sea, Tokyo brought its new radar station on Yonaguni Island in Okinawa Prefecture online Monday.

The listening post on the nation's westernmost inhabited island is just over 100 km east of Taiwan and nearly 150 km south of the flash point Senkaku Islands. The Senkakus are administered by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan, which call them Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai.

The permanent surveillance installation will be manned by a contingent of about 160 Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers. The tiny island has a population of about 1,500.