FOCUS: Remote Japanese island trying to bolster ties with Taiwan

NAHA, Japan, Oct. 2 Kyodo - Residents of Japan's westernmost island of Yonaguni are trying to find a way to counter its declining population by strengthening interactions with Taiwan.

The remote island that is part of Okinawa Prefecture is about 500 kilometers
away from Naha and about 2,000 km from Tokyo.
Before World War II, when Taiwan was under Japanese control and there was no
border between the two islands, Yonaguni was affluent and had a population of
4,000 to 5,000 who could freely visit Taiwan, about 110 km away.
Yonaguni, which has only one town named Yonaguni, was at its zenith for several
years after the end of the war as a base for a thriving black market. It
overflowed with people and material goods. The town boasted a population of
12,000 at a time when food and other things were scarce in the rest of the
country.
But the authorities cracked down on the black market and the island lost its
vitality. The number of tourists, however, has exceeded 30,000 in the last two
or three years thanks to a popular TV drama and the townspeople's efforts to
promote the tourism industry.
Nonetheless, the population of the island has fallen by about 200 in the past
five years to about 1,650 at present.
As jobs are limited in Yonaguni, islanders are focusing on Taiwan as a means of
survival and are trying to establish the island as a ''gateway'' to Asia.
About 70 people from Hualien, Yonaguni's sister city in central Taiwan, made a
group tour from July 4 to 7 to participate in an international fishing event to
catch marlin. More than 300 Taiwanese reportedly applied for the trip.
The group's trip marked the second time that a chartered plane had been sent to
Taiwan. The local town set up a liaison office in Hualien in May last year to
attract tourists and companies in an effort to strengthen relations.
Tsuneo Uechi, chief of the Yonaguni fisheries cooperative, said, ''If we can
get Taiwanese tourists in the future, we will be able to expand demand for such
sports fishing.''
''If we have the function of a border, some people and material goods from the
island of Taiwan, which has a population of 23 million, will come through
Yonaguni, which has a history of sharing culture and of living within the
sphere of Taiwan,'' said Chiyoki Tasato, head of the Hualien liaison office.
The Cabinet Office selected Yonaguni for a project to revitalize the island and
allocated 50 million yen to it. The local municipality plans to use the money
for a high-speed ship that will make two round trips to Taiwan on a trial basis
in November.
It had earlier petitioned the central government in Tokyo to designate the
island as a special border interaction zone and assign a fast-speed vessel to
run between Taiwan and Yonaguni. The central government rejected it on the
grounds of a lack of precedence.
Local officials hope to establish a track record for Yonaguni town as a
''border town'' and that customs, immigration and quarantine officials will
eventually be stationed there on a permanent basis.
Yonaguni islanders are beginning to emphasize the need for greater ties with
Taiwan than with Tokyo.
Town Mayor Shukichi Hokama said, ''We are inclined to be self-confident in
contributing to the maintenance of Japan's exclusive economic zone and becoming
defenders of the border. The central government has no border policy at all. If
the situation remains as it is, remote border islands like Yonagunijima will go
into decline. The residents will disappear.''
''Is it acceptable for Yonagunijima to become another Takeshima?'' he asked,
referring to South Korean-held islets in the Sea of Japan that are at the
center of a sovereignty dispute between Japan and South Korea.
==Kyodo