The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which will dispatch a survey party to the Senkaku Islands this week, will send another party in October, Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said, adding he plans to accompany the second trip.
The metropolitan government is awaiting the central government's permission to send the survey team by month's end. The trip would be in preparation for buying three of the five uninhabited islets from a Saitama businessman.
Ishihara, speaking to reporters Friday, urged the central government to quickly approve the application to land on the islets in August to conduct the prepurchase survey and said he wants the same team to visit the islets for a similar activity in October.