Tokyo buys uninhabited China islands

Almost one billion yen ($12.5 million) is what Tokyo city government pledged on Thursday to buy a group of disputed islands at the center of a row in China.

Tokyo's metropolitan authorities opened less than a month ago a bank account to accept citizen donations which reached about 864 million yen, from the city's latest tally.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara offers 100 million yen from an entrepreneur, yet the money have not yet reached the city's funds.

Ishihara vowed to buy a group of islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, his maritime territorial dispute in April.

The uninhabited islands is around 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from Tokyo in rich fishing grounds that may harbor profitable energy resources.

With the view to buying the titles to three of the five, Ishihara is an outspoken critic of Beijing who has made a career out of provocative nationalistic remarks, said he had approached the islands' private owners which are presently owned by a Japanese family and having a total annual rent of 24 million yen on leasing it to the Japanese government.

China and Japan are arguing over the island chain and a recent Uighur symposium in Tokyo that angered Beijing, which said on Wednesday it had cancelled a high-level military trip to its neighbor.

Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission and China's highest ranking military officer, said in a statement that it would not visit Japan due to his "work commitments" at the defense ministry. -GIAN — ARA