The government will begin building facilities on Okinotori Island in fiscal 2011 in a bid to develop and utilize the marine resources in its vicinity and protect Japan's 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusive economic zone around it, government sources said Thursday.
The government plans to begin building a dock and a freight-handling site on Okinotori, which consists of the Higashikojima and Kitakojima islets, to make it a staging area for research on marine resources.
Marine experts believe the seabed around Okinotori is rich in natural resources such as rare-earth elements.