TAKESHIMA DAY: THE VIEW FROM SHIMANE PREFECTURE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OSAKA KOBE 000088

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

AMEMBASSY SEOUL FOR YURI KIM
AMEMBASSY SEOUL FOR JAMES WAYMAN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EFIS PGOV PREL JA KS
SUBJECT: TAKESHIMA DAY: THE VIEW FROM SHIMANE PREFECTURE

REF: TOKYO 00925

SHIMANE'S MISCALCULATION
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1. (SBU) February 22 was the first time Shimane Prefecture
celebrated Takeshima Day after enacting a controversial
ordinance in 2005. A contact confided that the prefectural
assembly made a gross miscalculation about the Takeshima Day
ordinance. Meant more as a means of exerting pressure on the
GOJ, no one in the prefectural government foresaw the
reaction this would have in South Korea, according to
International Affairs Director Satoshi Nakajima. But now
that the ordinance had passed, the prefectural assembly could
not back down and repeal it. They felt forced to carry out
the celebrations, even though they realize now how it could
further set back Japanese-Korean relations.


2. (SBU) Nakajima was happy to report that the first
Takeshima Day was "not as bad as last year" in the fallout
over the ordinance. 250 riot police kept watch over events.
The right wingers who led vocal demonstrations against the
ROK last year were present, but quiet. A delegation of city
assembly members from Seoul who tried to protest inside the
prefectural government building delivered a protest letter
but were denied permission to pass out leaflets.

WHY NOW: HISTORY AND ECONOMICS
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3. (SBU) Shimane Prefecture claims the Takeshima Islands
(Tokdo in Korean) as part of its territory. The purposes of
Takeshima Day, according to the ordinance, are &to promote
early reestablishment of Shimane,s territorial rights over
the Takeshima islands and to enlighten public opinion
throughout the country and prefecture about Takeshima.8
This will be an annual event held each February 22. Perhaps
ignorant of the negative colonial context (reftel),Director
General of Shimane Prefecture's Environment and Life
Department Katsuhiro Inoue said that the 100th anniversary of
Takeshima being officially designated part of Shimane gave
the prefecture an additional impetus to create the ordinance.



4. (SBU) Although the talk is all about territory and the
historical injustice of Syngman Rhee,s detention, and later
expulsion and some deaths, of Shimane fishermen from the
island over 50 years ago, the real issue for the prefecture
is fishing rights. The area between Honshu and the islands
is a rich fishing ground for the prefecture,s fishing
industry. Given Shimane,s lack of jobs, isolation from even
regional centers such as Hiroshima or Kobe, and poor economic
performance, the fishing industry has political clout.


5. (SBU) Inoue recounted how Shimane appealed to MOFA every
year for decades to get the ministry to assert its
territorial rights over the islands so that it could fish in
the area. Although the two countries reached an agreement on
shared fishing rights, Inoue said that the ROKG was not
honoring the terms of the agreement. Worried that people
would soon forget about Shimane,s claim to the territory,
and ignored by MOFA, the prefecture decided to take matters
into its own hands last year. Inoue also added that he was
concerned that China was watching the Takeshima issue
closely, and might decide to follow the Korean example of
&actual occupation8 in the Senkakus if the GOJ did not take
action. COMMENT: Clearly, the Takeshima issue is far more
visceral to residents of Shimane than in far-off Tokyo. END
COMMENT.


6. (SBU) Inoue did not stray from his rosy description of
current prefectural relations with the ROK. He pointed to
the fact that Shimane and its Korean sister state, North
Gyeongsang Province, were continuing grassroots exchanges
even after the ordinance came on the books. COMMENT:
Technically speaking, sister-state relations were frozen by
the North Gyeongsang governor following enactment. The

OSAKA KOBE 00000088 002 OF 002


province delivered an ultimatum to Shimane: without a repeal
of Takeshima Day, prefectural relations would be kept on
hold. But what Inoue's comment, and local press reporting,
confirm is that two-way academic and cultural exchanges, and
even "personal" travel of prefectural and city officials to
South Korea to discuss further economic, cultural and
political relations, have continued even after the creation
of Takeshima Day. END COMMENT.


7. (SBU) In addition to media interviews, PR brochures, a
month-long Takeshima photo display in the prefectural
government building lobby, and prefecture-sponsored TV and
magazine messages targeting the run-up to the 22nd, Shimane
held a two-hour &Forum to Consider Takeshima.8
Unfortunately, the prefecture did not invite representatives
of the ROKG, or anyone with a Korean point of view, for that
matter, to any of the events of Takeshima Day. Inoue
admitted that the forum was a one-sided event from Shimane,s
point of view only, in which the governor, prefectural
assembly and citizen representatives participated.
RUSSEL