The sleepy Japanese islands caught between China and Taiwan

| They live on a remote palm-fringed paradise with craggy cliffs and idyllic coves of white sandy beaches, but the residents of Yonaguni are not as relaxed as usual.

. Increased Chinese patrols in local waters around the disputed Senkaku islands are also not helping. In 2016, after a fierce public debate that deeply divided the island’s residents, Japan stationed 160 SDF personnel on the island. They engage in coastal surveillance and, although they do not have the capacity to launch missiles, the government is fortifying their operations with the deployment of an electronic warfare unit next year.

Japan is preparing to overhaul the pacifist defence policies it implemented after World War II and play a more active role in working with the United States and Australia in the region to counter China’s rising influence. A proposed national defence strategy review was submitted to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this week and Tokyo is considering removing restrictions that prevent it from striking enemy bases.

“One of our boats which fishes near the Senkaku has been harassed regularly by Chinese patrol craft for the past two years. Most of the members of our co-operative don’t fish there,” says Shigenori Takenishi, the head of the Yonaguni fishing cooperative.

“There are people on the island who were against having the defence personnel here but once they got here we are friendly to them, and they’ve become part of the community,” says 71-year-old Rieko Arihama as she serves up fried chicken and noodles in one of the island’s few restaurants. She shares her home at the back of the restaurant with three Japanese defence force boarders who she says are “well-behaved and no trouble”.

However, he says islanders have become more nervous since Russia invaded Ukraine which has reignited debate about whether China will invade Taiwan.

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