In the five days since setting up a bank account for the purpose last Friday, 5,428 people and organizations donated ¥76 million to help the Tokyo Metropolitan Government purchase three of the five Senkaku islets, which are under Okinawa jurisdiction but also claimed by China and Taiwan, the metro government said Wednesday.
Last month, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara expressed his intention for the metro government to purchase the islets from the title holder, a Saitama Prefecture resident, based on the governor's self-professed sense of patriotism and apparent dissatisfaction with the central government's "soft" diplomatic stance toward China.
Ishihara has said he wants to complete the purchase, for an undisclosed amount, as early as next April.