MATSUE, Shimane Pref. -- Shimane Prefecture on Wednesday celebrated its first "Takeshima Day" by declaring that the tiny islets controlled by South Korea are part of Japan and calling on the government to pressure Seoul to hand them over.

Central government officials were conspicuously absent from Wednesday's event, however, in order to avoid straining ties further with Seoul.

"Takeshima has been occupied by South Korea for more than 50 years. In the past, we tried to get the rest of Japan to pay attention to the problem, but had no luck. Last year's prefectural resolution to create 'Takeshima Day' has successfully raised the profile of the issue nationally," Shimane Gov. Nobuyoshi Sumita said in his opening remarks to a forum on the dispute's history.