[Ithekro]

The owners of the Islands...they are Japanese, correct? The ones with the deeds?

The city of Tokyo offers to buy land out in the Sea from other Japanese land owners.

Aside from needing to figure out how to draw the line and how to police it with Tokyo police, there would only be the issue of Okinawa's government that administers those islands to contend with within the Japanese government. (Sort of like the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the policing it got while under contruction...or the L.A.P.D. setting up border patrols on Route 66 to keep Oakies out of California. They were pulled back under order of the State government as the California border is a bit outside Los Angeles city limits.)

And before you start pointing fingers...no, China has no say in the matter. I looked over the treaties. China's say ended a long time ago. They have no legitimate claim to the islands anymore. They can try to claim it as much as they like, but the facts are facts. The Islands are under Japan's control since 1895 while China gave up those those islands. And they might claim the treaties that ended World War II, but the territories listed were those Japan gave up claims for and those islands were not on the list. The treaty specifies places and labels the rest as "minor islands as we determine". Since it was not handed over with Formosa at war's end, it is no longer classified as part of Formosa, but instead classified as part of the Ryukyu Islands, as administred by the American government until 1972. Thus the Chinese claim is invalid within the structure of the various treaties.

Particularly the San Francisco Treaty since China did not sign it as they had a seperate peace with Japan which appearantly did nothing extra with the islands. Since the San Francisco Treaty is the Peace agreement, rather than the terms of surrender that the Potsdam Declaration was, the treaty is the one that matters and is binding. The Treaty of Taipei confirms the San Francisco Treaty (As well as adds the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands to the Chinese claim). And for those Chinese wanting to use this to reclaim the Daioyu Islands, Article 4 renders the Treaty of Shimonoseki void, but does not change the status of the islands as they were in US hands as part of the Ryukyu Islands, which means that they could not be returned to Taiwan nor China at that time, and by the time of the 1970s, Taiwan wasn't considered a country (officially) and Communist China was not considered an Allied nation...so they would have no more say in what lands could and could not be considered Japanese territory by way of the World War II treaties.

Basically, the mountain of treaties and administration grouping say "tough". The islands have not been considered Chinese terrotory since at least 1895 (with differences of opinion as to if they ever really were Chinese territory, part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, or just "no man's land" that defined the edge of Chinese waters). They were occupied by the United States since 1945 and formally US controlled in 1952 until handed over to the Japanese following the end of the occupation of the Ryukyu Islands in 1972, despite China's protest.

Oddly the US, while having no stance on the sovereignty of the islands, says they are under Japanese jurisdiction and thus covered by US security agreements with Japan. They have no stance because, as we have seen, it upsets the Chinese. But if shooting starts, the islands are covered by the US Seventh Fleet and other local assets.