The U.S. ambassador to Japan made a rare visit to two remote islands in the country's south near Taiwan in an apparent warning against China's increasing assertiveness in the surrounding waters.
"When you don't have deterrence, it's permission to economic coercion and aggression," Rahm Emanuel told reporters on Yonaguni Island, Japan's westernmost island about 100 kilometers east of Taiwan.
Emanuel, who later landed on Ishigaki Island about 130 km east of Yonaguni, met with local mayors and observed Ground Self-Defense Force garrisons and Japan Coast Guard vessels, according to Japanese government sources. He also exchanged views with senior GSDF and JCG officers, the sources added.
Yonaguni and Ishigaki are part of the southwestern Nansei island chain, which is strategically important due to its proximity to Taiwan, a potential geopolitical flashpoint.
With China viewing Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary, Japan has been strengthening both its defense capabilities in the area and its security cooperation with the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.
The U.S. commitment to defending Japan ranges "from Yonaguni all the way to Wakkanai in Hokkaido," the northernmost of Japan's main islands, the envoy said. "While I am the first U.S. ambassador to ever visit Yonaguni, I will not be the last," he added.
Emanuel also told the reporters that it is "very wrong for China" to fish in nearby waters. Later that day, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said, "While China bans Japanese fish, it doesn't ban Chinese fishing in Japanese waters."
The remarks came in the wake of China's import ban on all seafood products from Japan. The ban was implemented in response to Japan releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea since August.
In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference that Emanuel visited the GSDF garrisons "at the ambassador's request."
The top government spokesman described the ambassador's trip as "meaningful" in gaining a "better understanding about (Japan's) various efforts to reinforce the defense posture over the Nansei Islands, including deployment of the SDF units."
Emanuel flew to the Okinawa islands by a U.S. Marine Corps transport plane through local commercial airports, the sources said. It was the first time U.S. military aircraft used the Yonaguni Airport, according to the Okinawa prefectural government's existing records since 1997.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said in a written interview that Emanuel's trip to the isles "falls within the scope of an ambassador's usual duties," while it is "extremely regretful" that the U.S. forces airplane used a commercial airport.
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