Here we go, First ROK 56 swimmers then China's 14 sailors and now 150 of Japan's folks in 20 boats sailing. I guess if you got to do it then do it big. Pity they are not allowed to land on the isles cause it's just enough people for a nice barbeque. hahahahaaa

Why not top what ROK did by having all 150 people swim to the islands?

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! So is China going to interfere in this event? If so are they going to arrest 150+ people and deport them as well? If China is correct about the ownership of these isles they WILL interfere and publicly execute everyone involved but since they cannot legally interfere ALL they can do is protest and complain. Has anyone seen the videos posted on liveleak on China's protest (among others)? They are really funded for these events! Do people take time off of work to protest? Do these people even work? They are protesting night and day for days in a row! For what?

The Noda cabinet had 'allowed' them to do so before : right-wingers are allowed to sail / fish near the disputed islands, coastguards turned a blind eye if some / all of them land on the islands.

Sounded predictable step to follow given the cumulated grievances from the northern territories-Kuriles / Takeshima- Dokdo, Senkaku-Diaoyu remains the perfect stage to vent out grievances resulted from other face- losing incidents elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the situation becomes extremely dangerous this time. Reasons to have serious concerns if they do so.

there is a big difference utrack. koreans swam there and landed in the island because the island belongs to them chinese sailors landed in Diaoyu because the island belongs to chinese will the japanese nationalists able to land in Diaoyu? i don't think so.

Let the activist nationalists from whatever nation go and duke it melee-style out on these rocks for sake of their 'pride'. Meanwhile, the rest of us living in the 21st century in Japan, China, and Korea can conduct commerce as usual -- making our fortunes through civility and cooperation. Enjoy your "honor" -- I'll stake my own honor in what I can accomplish rather than how many "others" I can intimidate and irritate.

Don't these people have anything better to do? Like help rebuild Tohoku?

"We could not just let it go."

Sure you could have. You just chose not to.

Is the Island Swim going to become a new Olympic Event? Better start timing it...

Everybody was kung-fu fighting, Those cats were fast as lightning, In fact it was a little bit fry-ghtening But they fought with (uh) expuht timing...

I'll bring the sake, You bring the soju, And he'll bring baijiu...

Sounds like a good ol' right wing par-tee No confederate flag, but close enough.

@ Farmboy

Is the Island Swim going to become a new Olympic Event? Better start timing it...

Good one, But I think only SK can compete cause everyone seems to be using boats.

I meant: everyone Else seems to be using boats.

How bout ending it with a winner take all celebrity MMA deathmatch between the leaders of these right wing groups & pop bands? Might as well sell tickets that way.

@serrano

"SerranoAUG. 18, 2012 - 03:44PM JST Don't these people have anything better to do? Like help rebuild Tohoku?"

Absolutely right ! Did you see the nasty gesture on the face of the Tokyo official trying to swallow a strawberry ( supposed to be produced from local farm ) facing journalists' cameras in Tohoku ?

I notice they're not threatening to go to Dokdo. Don't have their visas in order?

Maybe their enjoying the Senkaku scenery on their luxury flotillas a little too much...take in that fresh marine air boys. Oh and barf bags are on your right.

So the Japanese nationalists are going to copy the Chinese? Let the water games begin!

I predict China will get the gold, S Korea the silver and Japan the bronze.

I can see it WIII

My Political Diary Aug. 15 Wail about sorrow and unwisdom of war. Aug. 18 Crank up territorial dispute with well-armed neighbors one more notch...

Big deal, Senkakus is already administered by Japan.

Now, swimming and sailing to Takeshima island or the Kuril islands would raise eyebrows.

The Chinese did what they believed in regardless of the threat of arrest, now that's a statement.

Sailing to an island already under your country's control, well that's no biggie.

Ｓｉｌｌｙ　ｓｅａｓｏｎ！

I notice they're not threatening to go to Dokdo. Don't have their visas in order?

Smithinjapan,

Do you really want to see a war? You seem very anxious for one.

Good to see people fighting the stereotypical "Japan just copies" image. I mean, nobody else has sailed to a disputed island, claiming sovereignty in the last few days, have they?

Don't come back! They can stay there as long as they like.

So if the do swim to shore, will they be deported somewhere nice the next day?

@SunnysideUp Koreans and Chinese may be intelligent. But Japanese are surely NOT stupid...;)

As Mills Lane would say," Let's get it on." About time Japan took it their antagonists.This rolling over to China and S.Korea along with Russia is totally and unequivocally unacceptable.Barring that despot Ishihara,I'll take any leader with some gumption to stop this kowtowing.

This is just so silly on many levels....like little boys fighting for the only toy in the schoolyard. My island, no MY island, NO MY island etc...

This rolling over to China and S.Korea along with Russia is totally and unequivocally unacceptable.

Unacceptable to whom? Only a nationalist would say such a thing. Nobody else really cares.

This is just so silly on many levels....like little boys fighting for the only toy in the schoolyard. My island, no MY island, NO MY island etc...

It's really sad that these countries never managed to grow up after a certain age...

It's really sad that these countries never managed to grow up after a certain age...

Unlike, say the UK. (Spain and Gibraltar, Argentina and the Falklands, Ireland and Ulster, Guatemala and Belize etc etc).

仲良くしようよ！

Naka yoku shyohyo!

The world is watch you, you should set a dignified and respectful example in your reply to china and Korea, if you did the same thing what they did, then there will be no difference

japan should sail a peaceful message

Why the "emotional" reaction, Japan?

Sure you could let it go. You already claim it and control it so going there is like you have something to prove that you do not. I do believe this is covered in TheOatmeal's case for irony http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony Oi...

The kids are spiraling ever downward. Up to 150 so the next country in the round robin play will double or triple the number, and so on...

according to the latest china's btv news, those people are still in tokyo protesting to get a permission from japanese government. will they able to hop on the boat at least? or japanese bravery dissipates? lol

Around 150 people, including Japanese lawmakers and nationalist campaigners, were preparing Saturday to sail to islands

Yasushi Watanabe, of nationalist group Gambare Nippon

The Olympics are over, mate.

smith:

I notice they're not threatening to go to Dokdo.

They can't because they know South Korea are controlling the islands. Just like they wouldn't swim to the Southern Kuriles.

China is trying to bully Japan into better gas and mineral concessions or even outright ownership of these islands.... but the Japanese will not be bullied. If this does continue.... at some point it will light a fire under Japan and then the Chinese will see Japan's full resolve.

Extremely untimely event that could lead to war.

Pukey: "They can't because they know South Korea are controlling the islands. Just like they wouldn't swim to the Southern Kuriles."

Ya think? I was being sarcastic.

Anyway, leave it to the Japanese to copy the Chinese.

Dude that was funny as hell!!!!! BWHAHAHAHA

"Everybody was kung-fu fighting, Those cats were fast as lightning, In fact it was a little bit fry-ghtening But they fought with (uh) expuht timing...

I'll bring the sake, You bring the soju, And he'll bring baijiu...

Sounds like a good ol' right wing par-tee No confederate flag, but close enough.

Also thought this!!!....it could happen....couple of dipshits start this off...and it just turns nasty!!!

"Extremely untimely event that could lead to war."

Always the same pathetic news.

Now is the right time to take advantage on these three countries. While China, Korea and Japan is playing like kindergarden, the USA should take advantage selling the things that the countries will not buy from each other anymore.

Common guys, nobody gain anything fighting like this. Asian nations should grow up.

NK must be laughing their a***s off!

Why is Ozawa Ichiro so quiet?

100 Koreans 100 Japanese 100 Chinese

Battle Royal - Senkaku

Pukey: "They can't because they know South Korea are controlling the islands. Just like they wouldn't swim to the Southern Kuriles."

They won't go near the Kuriles, because they know the Russians will sink the boat with then inside, they idiot right wing know who not to mess with.

smithinjapanAug. 18, 2012 - 04:11PM JST I notice they're not threatening to go to Dokdo. Don't have their visas in order?

No they aren't as immature or belligerent as South Koreans, prefering to to resolve the issue in a civilized manner, something South Korea is evading while simply barking "it's mine, it's mine!".

Nothing civilized in anything these mentally unstable Japanese facists may come up. Always overreacting on silly things.

Gaijinfo beat me to it - this has "Battle Royale" written all over it. Bunch of eternal jr high school kids mucking about when there are much more pressing issues in Japan, this is just sad.

How about using 10% of that energy for preventing nuclear waste from entering children's food?

Facts

• The Japanese sail to Senkaku was planned before the HK sail.
  • The HK activists said they wanted to get there before the Japanese.
  • So HK was reacting to Japanese plans.
  • Japanese did not copy.

Gambare Nippon? This is getting silly.

Please put literature source/article backing any claims of "facts" before claiming "facts".

If and I mean If there was a battle royale... There was also be a gang bang of China and South Korea banging Japan. Then Taiwan could step in a get their isles back.

This is so dumb. What are these sickos going to achieve? Only more animosity.

Well as I always say, if the yanks ever decide to pull out of Japan or Japan asks them to leave THEN its time to leave these isles, its perfrctly clear if Japan Korea & China are left alone it will get stupid, nasty pretty quick these 3 in the sand box are utterly incapable of getting along

Those Hong Kong Diayoutai 'raiders' said they will return in October!

OssanAmerica

No they aren't as immature or belligerent as South Koreans, prefering to to resolve the issue in a civilized manner, something South Korea is evading while simply barking "it's mine, it's mine!".

I wouldn't call this move mature at all, and Japan has been doing the same thing that you accuse SK of doing.

Japan really needs to stop deluding itself and think itself as so "mature" and "rational" when I have not seen a single mature or rational move from Japan.

Know this; First and foremost, Senkaku was the possesion of the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, but Japan annexed the whole of the Kingdom and I hoped the Cairo Accords was going to give the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, but greedy Japan is still fighting to keep all the lands they took by "violence or greed" - now, the Ryukyuans get along very well with the Chinese and they would be content to share the Senkakus with China and it could mean great monies to Okinawa, but Japan continues to build a scab on its nose and Japan is still angry over the Kuriles etc and they flirt with an angry China who just might spank them. Frankly , I am on China's side. (I also love the Ryukyuan people.)

This BBC map seems to show that the Diaoyutai Islands is closer to the continental shelf of China and Taiwan:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19303931

The Diaoyu islands issue is the leftover of WWII. China will get back what it had lost in the past.

Marion a lot of these people and the boats are from Okinawa. So you are against Okinawa people going to another part of their islands? If China gets these islands, then the fight will be over the rest of the islands. We do not want to be Chinese!

You can argue continental shelf as a basis for EEZ in the ocean but you cannot use this claim to determine the sovereignty of a land territory. Besides, the recent ITLS decision between bangladesh and Myanmar basically ruled that the median line is the principle for dividing ocean EEZ.

too wright Never Submit, let see them try sail too or even land on Takeshima or Kuril islands, me thinks they wouldnt have the gonads. LOL

Very silly people.
Nationalists are always silly at first, then effective, then deadly..... Don't fall for this fascist crap again Japan.

"Nationalists"? What on Earth do "nationalists" have to do with anything?

No doubt this is state sponsored. So the government paid for a random selection of pathetic short men with equally silly inferiority complexes to get shipped out to the middle of nowhere, so they can prance around with megaphones in hand, pissing on trees, pretending to have testicles, and and whinging about "omae" and "kimi" a lot.

Yet, I don't see the National Front marching around outside of the Ecuadorian embassy shouting about Assange. Learn from a real country and please... grow up Japan.

@Marion Wm Steele What are you going on about? Okinawa whether you like it or not is part of Japan. I'm not opposed to Okinawan independence but that is another issue! You seem to think that an independent Okinawa would have a great relationship with China. Think again! I used to work in China and have been told by many times by Chinese that Okinawa ALSO belongs to China! There is a whole lot of aggression towards Japan coming from young people in China, encouraged of course by the government. Always a good way for the government to divert attention away from domestic problems.

The Senkakus were handed back to Japan by the U.S. in 1972 but the U.S. currently claims neutrality on this issue which is just ridiculous in my opinion. They use the threat of China to maintain their presence in Japan yet when Japanese territory is threatened they claim neutrality.

No doubt this is state sponsored.

Ridiculous.

Yet, I don't see the National Front marching around outside of the Ecuadorian embassy shouting about Assange. Learn from a real country and please... grow up Japan.

The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982. It restricted membership to "indigenous British" people until a 2010 legal challenge to its constitution.[15] The BNP advocates "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home",[16] as well as the repeal of anti-discrimination legislation. The BNP finished fifth in the 2008 London mayoral election with 5.2% of the vote and secured one of the London Assembly's 25 seats. In 2009 it won its first county council seats and two seats in the European Parliament. During the 2010 General Election, the BNP received 1.9% of the vote and failed to win any seats. The party's current leader, Nick Griffin,[17] is a former national organiser of the National Front.[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BritishNationalParty

@Alex Tokyo So you think the Chinese 'activists' weren't state sponsored then? No, the National Front is not in front of the Ecuadorian Embassy and why would they be? But I will tell you who is in front of the embassy. A bus load of British police just waiting to be given the go ahead to go in and arrest him!

The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right political party formed...

Wait, what does your random copy & paste of information from the Wikipedia BNP entry have to do with the National Front (not the BNP) NOT crying about Assange outside the Ecuadorian embassy, or with what a real 1st world country has to teach Japan? The fact is that Japanese government still has a lot to learn from the British, the Germans, etc: i.e. don't deploy a small gang of short angry men with silly penis envy every time another country upsets you. Stay classy and rise above it. Napoleon complex and megaphones will not get Japan anywhere in their juvenile disputes with China or Korea.

"Classy" Britain, "rising above it", sent one of its biggest warships to the Falklands just last Friday. "The sight of one of the most formidable British warships ever built is a welcome one for islanders at a time of increased grandstanding between the UK and Argentina over sovereignty of the disputed territory."

But there's a MASSIVE difference between sending a real warship with fully trained, paid, qualified and pretty-much indifferent crew Vs. bankrolling a 2-bit glorified banana boat sailed by a hodgepodge motley crew of short angry "Nationalists" with a silly inferiority complex & misguided chip on their collective shoulder.

How do you say "kamikaze" in Chinese?

Thomas AndersonAug. 18, 2012 - 11:40PM JST "OssanAmerica No they aren't as immature or belligerent as South Koreans, prefering to to resolve the issue in a civilized manner, something South Korea is evading while simply barking "it's mine, it's mine!".

I wouldn't call this move mature at all, and Japan has been doing the same thing that you accuse SK of doing.

Oh really? Is there a Coast Guard Station on the Senkakus? Has the J-PM landed there to make a political point? For that matter are internal J-politics based on Korea bashing? No, I'd say it's pretty clear that Soputh Koreea is immature.

Japan really needs to stop deluding itself and think itself as so "mature" and "rational" when I have not seen a single >mature or rational move from Japan.

That's only because you're biased. The entire rest of the woprld which couldn't care less about these rocks sees Japanacting rationally and in a civilzed manner while South Koreans are hotheaded and belligerent. Sorry, but that's the reality. Global Korea? Maybe in 100 years.

I hope that Japan is not once again, Shooting it's own foot off.When China decides,they will give Japan the royal screw by limiting their access to their very lucrative markets.Come on Japan,start thinking outside the Sake box!