Japan has countered China's argument that Tokyo should not claim jurisdiction around Okinotori, saying the tiny atoll representing the country's southernmost point has "the status of an island."
"Our stance is that we have an exclusive economic zone and a continental shelf around Okinotori Island," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said Wednesday, a day after a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman criticized Japan's claim of jurisdiction over a large sea area as contrary to the common interest of the international community.
Okinotori has only two points about 1 meter high protruding from the sea and the Japanese government has shrouded them with concrete walls. The government has also constructed a solar-powered beacon on the uninhabited outcropping.
China's criticism came as Japan plans to pass a bill during the current Diet session partly aimed at protecting Okinotori from sinking because of erosion.
"From July 1931 . . . to now, we have effectively controlled Okinotori Island as an island and have set an exclusive economic zone in the surrounding sea. We think that such rights and its status as an island have already been established," Kodama said.