28 March 2016•Update: 02 April 2016
TOKYO
Japan has deployed a ground force unit to monitor China's maritime activities near a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
On Monday, Kyodo News reported that the 160-man force on its western Yonaguni Island would mainly monitor vessels and aircraft via radar.
"Establishing a stable defense setup in the Nansei area represents our country's commitment to defense," said Lt. Gen Kiyoshi Ogawa during a ceremony on Yonaguni.
The 30 sq m island -- Japan's westernmost -- is located some 150 kilometers south of the Senkaku Islands, which China -- which has claimed that the islands are its inherent territory -- refers too as Diaoyu.
"We are required to quickly react to various situations. We hope to deal with them appropriately," Daigo Shiomitsu, leader of the new coastal observation unit, said after receiving a flag from Ogawa.
China claims almost all the nearby resource-rich South China Sea, and has overlapping claims with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Its reclamation work, which includes the building of airfields on some of the disputed islands, has stirred global controversy and provoked tensions in the region.
The U.S. and Japan have expressed alarm at China's maritime expansion, which they suspect is aimed at extending its military reach, while the Philippines -- which calls the area as the West Philippine Sea -- has taken the quarrel to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in The Hague.
