U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Friday made a 2,000-kilometer journey from Tokyo to Okinawa Prefecture’s remote Yonaguni Island — just 160 km from Taipei — as Washington and Tokyo look to present a united front amid growing concerns about a conflict over democratic Taiwan.
Emanuel is the first U.S. ambassador to travel to the island, which is home to a Ground Self-Defense Force base, where he met with Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu and had lunch with some of the roughly 250 SDF troops deployed there.
“I might be the first U.S. ambassador to visit Yonaguni, but I predict I won’t be the last,” Emanuel said in a post on social media platform X, adding that he and Itokazu had “discussed economic opportunities linked with security for Japan’s westernmost island.”
During his visit, the U.S. envoy also met with local fishers, criticizing Beijing over its ban on the imports of Japanese marine products following Tokyo’s decision last August to begin releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
“While China bans Japanese fish, it doesn’t ban Chinese fishing in Japanese waters,” Emanuel wrote on X. “This must be a new twist on China’s win-win philosophy. Despite this, Yonaguni’s fishermen head out each day to earn a living, support the local economy, and reinforce Japan’s territorial rights. That’s what a real win looks like — economic security.”
Emanuel later visited Ishigaki Island, an island of 50,000 people that is also in the Nansei chain and hosts an SDF base.
But the possibility of a crisis over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland — by force if necessary — loomed over the trip.
Japan has placed a priority on reinforcing its far-flung southwestern islands, which would be uniquely exposed in the event of a conflict with China over Taiwan. Experts say the islands, especially Yonaguni, would likely be targeted as strategic footholds by China in any such crisis.
As part of a shifting defense policy, Tokyo has deployed more SDF troops, new units and improved military capabilities in and around the Nansei chain amid concerns that China could take a page from Russia in its war on Ukraine and invade Taiwan.
The base on Yonaguni — with a population of about 1,700, including SDF personnel — was established in 2016. In March, a new unit consisting of about 40 GSDF personnel became operational at the base. Those troops are in charge of electronic warfare, which includes intercepting and jamming enemy communications.
The Defense Ministry plans to deploy surface-to-air missiles there soon while also acquiring adjacent land for a large expansion of the base.
But during large-scale Chinese military exercises in August 2022, Beijing signaled that it, too, is well aware of the strategic significance of the islands, sending five ballistic missiles into waters near Yonaguni and Hateruma islands, inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone — ostensibly in response to a visit to Taiwan by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Japanese government is preparing for an evacuation scenario involving residents in the Nansei Islands, in the event of a contingency amid China’s military moves in the area. China has in recent years routinely sent warships and bombers on training missions near the islands.
The moves have unnerved many residents, and the government picked five municipalities on the far-flung islands in March to construct underground shelters for residents to evacuate to in case of a military crisis.
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