A drill Japan conducted in November at a remote southwestern island was held under the premise that foreign forces had occupied the Senkaku Islands, which are administered by Japan and claimed by China, according to several government sources.
The drill, involving the Self-Defense Forces, Japan Coast Guard and police, took place at an uninhabited island in Nagasaki Prefecture with land features resembling Uotsuri Island, one of the islets that make up the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, the sources said.
Following the two-day drill from Nov. 20 on Tsutara Island in Goto, Nagasaki Prefecture, the government had said the exercise was aimed at improving Japan's response to emergency situations in the country's island areas, and was "not intended for a specific island or a country."