Japan to buy 3 disputed islands from Japanese owner

The Japanese government will three of the Senkaku Islands from their private Japanese landowner for 2.05 billion yen (26 million U.S. dollars). Known as Diaoyu in China, the islands are at the center of a territorial dispute with China. The landowner purchased the islands for 38 million yen 24 years ago.

According to the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun on Wednesday, Tokyo reached an agreement with the landowner in a secret meeting on the price for the three islets — Uotsuri, Kitakojima and Minamikojima. The two sides will exchange formal contracts before closing the deal by the end of this month.

The Japanese government initially estimated the value of the islands at 500 million yen but decided to pay more than 2 billion yen to purchase them before the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which had raised more than 1.4 billion yen in publicly donated funds, could buy them.

The landowner, 69, reportedly owns a wedding hall in Saitama Prefecture and bought the three islands from 1974 through 1988 for 38 million yen. He leased them to the Japanese government for 10 years from March 2002 for 24.5 million yen a year. Since the territorial dispute with Beijing began, Tokyo leased the land to “maintain and manage the Senkaku Islands in a peaceful and stable manner.”

Kazuhiko Togo, a former Japanese diplomat and scholar on international relations, told a news conference in Tokyo Wednesday that the nationalization of the Senkaku Islands was aimed at “eliminating the territorial dispute with China.”

lovesong@donga.com