Japan's risky frontiers: territorial sovereignty and governance of the Senkaku Islands

• Published in: Japanese studies Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 1 - 23
• Main Author: Hook, Glenn D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Abe, Shinzo; Administrative control; China; China (People's Republic); Cost; Demonstrations; Disputes; Governance; Government and politics; Islands; Japan; Maritime law; Markets; Peoples Republic of China; Post-war history; Risk; Sovereignty; Taiwan; Territoriality
• ISSN: 1037-1397
• DOI: 10.1080/10371397.2014.893809

This article investigates Japan's current role in the Senkaku Islands. The government maintains administrative control of these tiny, uninhabited islands and rocks at the frontier of Japan, but both the governments of China and Taiwan dispute Japanese claims to sovereignty and claim sovereignty over the islands themselves. Whilst much of the extant literature examines these competing claims, this article instead explores the relationship between risk, sovereignty and governance at the frontiers of Japan. It seeks to demonstrate in particular how the governance of Japan's maritime frontiers reflects a broader process of the recalibration of risk by the Abe Shinzo government as part of ending the postwar regime. Its main purpose is twofold: first, to illuminate how the government carries out administrative control and governance of a remote, uninhabited territory when sovereignty is challenged and in dispute; and second, to elucidate how the government's recalibration of risk generates a range of costs for the Japanese market and society as a result of the deterioration of relations with China arising from the way risk is being recalibrated. Adapted from the source document.