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Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has announced that the country will deploy medium-range missiles on Yonaguni Island, located close to Taiwan, UATV English reports.
Bloomberg reports this.
The island is situated about 110 kilometres from Taiwan.
“Deploying these missiles may help reduce the likelihood of an armed attack on our country,” Shinjiro Koizumi told journalists on Sunday.
“The idea that this move will increase regional tensions is incorrect,” he added.
Japan plans to station medium-range surface-to-air missiles on Yonaguni as part of a broader military buildup along its southern island chain. These steps reflect Tokyo’s growing concern over China’s expanding military power and the potential for armed conflict over Taiwan.
Yonaguni Island is Japan’s westernmost point and a tourist destination. It is washed by the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
As reported by Ukrinform earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that the future of good-neighbourly relations between Japan and China depends on whether Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi retracts her recent comments about China’s Taiwan region, which angered Chinese citizens.
The controversy refers to Takaichi’s remarks during a parliamentary debate on 7 November, in which she said that a Chinese attack on democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, could be treated as a situation that threatens Japan’s existence and, under legislation updated in 2015, could allow Tokyo to intervene in an armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
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