Comprehensive issues

1. January 1895 cabinet decision concerning the Senkaku Islands' incorporation

　Okinawa Prefecture was established in April 1879. After carefully ascertaining that the Senkaku Islands had never been inhabited and that there were no trace of having been under a control of any state including China through deliberation within the Okinawa Prefecture including a field survey of the islands (→Document 1), the Japanese government incorporated the Senkaku Islands into Okinawa Prefecture through a January 1895 cabinet decision to erect markers (→Document 7, Document 8). This decision was taken out of a need to manage the Senkaku Islands due to increased use of the surrounding waters as fishing grounds (→Document 3, Document 4).

　The process leading up to the January 1895 cabinet decision on incorporation of the islands was not at first directed by the central government in Tokyo, but rather began with a petition by Okinawa Prefecture to incorporate the islands into the Prefecture, which had received a request to do so by the Yaeyama Islands Public Office, in light of the facts that local fishermen had begun fishing around the Senkaku Islands. Okinawa Prefecture's petition to the central government was submitted in January 1890 (→Document 2), but the government was not prompt to approve the petition. Thereafter, when fishing activities around the Senkaku Islands intensified (→Document 5), Okinawa Prefecture petitioned the central government again in November 1893 (→Document 6).

　This incorporation of the islands qualifies as an "occupation" under international law. Occupation is a form of acquiring territorial title to turn terra nullius into part of the occupying state's territory. This occurs when the state acts before any other state to take effective control of the land that does not belong to the territory of any state, with the intent of controlling the land as sovereign territory. Territorial title means facts that are considered to be a legitimate basis for territorial sovereignty.¹

　Discovery of an unknown land only amounts to inchoate title. Within a reasonable time after the discovery, the claim must be supplemented by effective control of the discovered land (see the Arbitral Award in the 1928 Island of Palmas Case²).

Document 1:
"Overview of the Investigation and Survey of Uotsuri and Two Other Islands (Copy)," ("On the matter of erecting territorial markers on uninhabited islands scattered between Okinawa Prefecture and Fuzhou in the Qing Dynasty"; "Kobun Betsuroku, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1882-1885, Vol. 4, published 1885"; report dated November 4, 1885), (from the National Archives of Japan), (posted at the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal)
　This is a report on a Senkaku Islands field survey by Hyogo Ishizawa, an official of Okinawa Prefecture who joined the prefecture's 1885 field survey of the islands. A six-person survey team, including Ishizawa, landed on Uotsuri Island, where they investigated the island's topography and potential for development.

Document 2:
"Ko No.1: Inquiry concerning the matter of the uninhabited islands; Kuba and Uotsuri Islands"; "Miscellaneous Matters Related to Imperial Territory"; January 13, 1890 (from the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan), (posted at the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal)
　Fishermen from Okinawa Prefecture began entering the waters around the Senkaku Islands in or around 1889. At that time, jurisdiction over the Senkaku Islands had not been established. Governor of Okinawa Kanji Maruoka petitioned the central government (through Aritomo Yamagata, Minister of Home Affairs [and concurrently Prime Minister]) to give the Yaeyama Islands Public Office (present-day Ishigaki City Hall) jurisdiction over the Senkaku Islands out of "a need to control the fisheries."

Document 3:
"Documents concerning the Yaeyama Islands - Kuba Island" (produced between December 1889 and April 1890), (from the Okinawa Prefectural Library), (posted at the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal)
　These administrative documents were kept by Tadao Hanawa, who worked at the Yaeyama Islands Public Office (now Ishigaki City Hall) as an official of Okinawa Prefecture. They include interview surveys on the fishing industry in the waters around the Senkaku Islands. The documents state that a total of 78 people had traveled to Kuba Island and Uotsuri Island in the Senkaku Islands by the time that the survey was conducted. In one of the documents, the Director of the Yaeyama Islands requests the incorporation of the Senkaku Islands into the jurisdiction of the Yaeyama Islands Public Office.

Document 4:
"Okinawa Prefectural Police Statistics in the year of 1891" (instructions dated December 11, 1891; published in a compilation report on December 7, 1892), (from the National Diet Library, Japan), ("2019 Final Report on Research of Documents concerning the Senkaku Islands," page 32)
　This is an annual report compiling reports from sections of the Okinawa Prefectural Police. In December 1891, Yaeyama Islands Police Station received an instruction from the Governor of Okinawa Prefecture to provisionally place the Akon-Kubashima Islands (an old and local name for the Senkaku Islands) under the police station's jurisdiction.
　The January 1895 cabinet decision on the incorporation of the islands was not a sudden beginning to Japan's exercise of jurisdictional authority. Rather, this report shows that, based on the fact that the waters around the Senkaku islands had been actively used as fishing grounds, the Okinawa Prefectural Police had been making attempts to control the fishing activities there since before the cabinet decision.

Document 5:
"Mission statement for undertaking marine business around the uninhabited islands" (produced in 1893), (from the Okinawa Prefectural Archives), ("2019 Final Report on Research of Documents concerning the Senkaku Islands," page 34)
　A fishing expedition around the Senkaku Islands was planned by a fishermen's organization led by Tadashi Noda, a former samurai from Kumamoto Prefecture. The mission statement states, "(We) have decided to engage in fishing operations around the Senkaku Islands, uninhabited islands lying between the Yaeyama Islands and Taiwan." Noda's fishing expedition to the Senkaku Islands was reported in the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Kyushu Nichinichi Shimbun, and "Exploration of Southern Islands" by Gisuke Sasamori (posted at the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal).

Document 6:
Follow-up petition by the Governor of Okinawa Prefecture on erecting territorial markers, ("Ko No. 111"; "Miscellaneous Matters Related to Imperial Territory"; submitted on November 2, 1893), (from the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan), (posted at the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal)
　Governor of Okinawa Prefecture Shigeru Narahara again petitioned the central government (through Minister of Home Affairs Kaoru Inoue and Minister of Foreign Affairs Munemitsu Mutsu) for the incorporation of the Senkaku Islands into the Prefecture and the erection of territorial markers out of a need to control the further increasing fishing activities operating around the Senkaku Islands. The document states that the control is necessary in light of the situation in which "(r)ecently, however, people are coming to the islands to attempt fishery and other pursuits."

Document 7:
Written request by the Minister of Home Affairs for a cabinet meeting ("Hibetsu No. 133 - On the matter of erecting markers"; "Kobun Ruishu, Vol. 19, 1895"), (from the National Archives of Japan), (posted at the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal)
　Minister of Home Affairs Yasushi Nomura drafted this document (dated January 12, 1895) requesting a cabinet meeting in response to a written petition by the Governor of Okinawa Prefecture to the central government dated November 2, 1893 (Document 5). This document states that there had been a petition to place the uninhabited islands of Kuba and Uotsuri under the jurisdiction of Okinawa Prefecture and erect markers out of a need to control the people attempting fishing operations there in recent years. The document also advocates for the erection of a marker as petitioned because the islands can be considered under the prefecture's jurisdiction.

Document 8:
Cabinet decision authorizing the erection of territorial markers and Okinawa Prefecture's jurisdiction (cabinet decision; draft instruction; on the matter of erecting markers, as the request stated; "Kobun Ruishu, Vol. 19, 1895"; decided on January 14, 1895), (from the National Archives of Japan), (posted on the Senkaku Islands Archives Portal)
　This is a cabinet decision on placing Kuba and Uotsuri islands under the jurisdiction of Okinawa Prefecture (dated January 14, 1895) and a draft instruction to the prefecture. The cabinet decision recognizes Okinawa Prefecture's jurisdiction over the Senkaku Islands and permits the erection of markers as requested by the Governor of Okinawa Prefecture (Document 5) due to the need to control the people attempting fishing operations around the uninhabited islands referred to as Kuba Island and Uotsuri Island.