Declassified documents: Japan asked the U.S. to change its neutrality policy on Senkaku sovereignty, but was refused

Japan asked the U.S. government to revise its “no specific position” policy in April 1978 in response to the confrontation between Japan and China caused by a number of Chinese fishing boats sailing into Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China), Kyodo News Agency revealed on May 3, citing declassified U.S. official documents. The Japanese side reasoned that the U.S. position raised doubts about the U.S.-Japan security system, but the Japanese request was rejected by the United States.

The report said that the U.S. government returned the Senkaku to Japan as part of Okinawa to the regime in 1972. The U.S. positioned the Senkaku as the object of application of Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which stipulates defense obligations to Japan, on the one hand, and set aside the judgment of ultimate sovereignty on the other. A series of documents obtained by Kyodo News from the U.S. National Archives show that the Japanese government at the time secretly asked the U.S. to revise its neutrality policy amid a situation in which China’s entry into Japanese territorial waters caused a surge in Japanese domestic public opinion calling for the express sovereignty of the Senkaku.

In April 1978, official cables from the U.S. Embassy in Japan and the U.S. State Department show that then-Prime Minister Takeshi Fukuda, in a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mansfield, referred to the entry of Chinese fishing boats into Japanese territorial waters that occurred in the same month. Fukuda, who is visiting the United States, said Japan was shocked by the Chinese provocative action and expected the U.S. to show “understanding” of Japan’s sovereignty. The Japanese side pointed out that the relevant issues “will raise doubts about the Japan-U.S. security treaty” and demanded to revise the U.S. opinion on the sovereignty of the Senkaku since the return of Okinawa. But the State Department refused on the grounds that “this is a position that takes into account the long-term necessity of the United States, and the situation has not changed.