Japan-China spat over the Senkaku islands continues; Tokyo intends to resume its yen loans to Myanmar as early as next year; Japan plans to promote a cyber-security defense network with the ASEAN states
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  • According to reports, Japan-China spat over the Senkaku islands seems to have escalated further with Tokyo’s recent nationalization of three of the disputed islands in September this year. Since the nationalization, Chinese surveillance ships, including those belonging to the Chinese State Oceanic Administration, have repeatedly visited the waters off the islands. While offering a protest to the nationalization, Taiwanese patrol vessels and fishing boats too recently encroached on that area. 1

    In the meantime, the Japanese government has decided to change its tactics while dealing with China over the Senkaku islands. Tokyo is planning to lobby for international support on the issue by sending Foreign Ministry’s three top officials, including Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, to relevant countries in order to explain Japan’s sovereignty on the islands. 2

    In another development, the Japanese government has recently expressed its intention to resume its low-interest yen loans to Myanmar by next year on the condition that Myanmar’s external debt obligations will be eliminated. It is the first time since the late 1980s that Tokyo is offering such economic assistance to Myanmar. The loans are to assist develop infrastructure projects within Myanmar, such as electricity, roads, telecommunication network, etc. 3
    In other developments, Japan is currently planning to promote a cyber-security defense network with the ten ASEAN member states. As many of these countries of the ASEAN are facing a series of cyber-attacks against websites of government offices and corporations, Japan has decided to promote the idea of a defense network to share information about cyber –attack patterns and technology to deal with it. 4

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