‘Salami-slicing’ at sea? Chinese buoys test Japan’s patience

Japan keeps finding Chinese buoys in waters it claims as its own, raising one lawmaker’s fears of creeping territorial encroachment

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A Chinese buoy deployed at a unspecified location in the East China Sea in 2021. Photo: Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Published: 10:30am, 11 Feb 2025Updated: 2:27pm, 11 Feb 2025

Chinese buoys discovered in waters claimed by Japan are being used to quietly chip away at the country’s sovereignty, according to a Japanese lawmaker, who has lambasted Tokyo’s muted response to what he calls China’s “salami-slicing tactics”.

Jin Matsubara, an independent member of parliament and former chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, has demanded that Tokyo take a harder stance against the buoys, which have been detected close to the disputed Diaoyu Islands and near Yonaguni, the closest Japanese island to Taiwan.

In scathing remarks, Matsubara accused the Japanese government of failing to counter Beijing’s calculated encroachments, warning in a written submission to the Diet on January 27 that many citizens were “outraged” about “sending the wrong message to Beijing”.

The controversy centres on buoys deployed by China near the Diaoyus, which Tokyo administers and calls the Senkakus, and another near Yonaguni Island within Japan’s exclusive economic zone that was discovered as recently as December.

A Chinese maritime surveillance vessel passes near the Diaoyu Islands, which Japan administers and calls the Senkakus, in 2013. Photo: Kyodo

Japan has formally requested the removal of the devices, but Beijing, citing “meteorological purposes”, has refused to comply. At a December 27 press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that the buoy found off Yonaguni was “legal” and rejected Japan’s request for its removal.