On May 10, “Genron TV” – sponsor of an hour-long weekly internet television news show which I have hosted since last October – tackled a national security issue under this theme: “Losing Japan’s Precious Lands.” “Your Small Step Will Help Change Tomorrow’s Japan” – the invigorating title of my show – has been selected by a group of junior and senior high school students at a girls’ school in Tokyo, reflecting my wish to provide a television show designed to prompt as many young Japanese as possible to grapple squarely and positively with a host of vital issues Japan is faced with.

　　　I take pride in inviting a leading specialist of a specific field each week, discussing the pertinent issues Japan is faced with, dissecting and analyzing them, and getting to the core of the matter more tenaciously and thoroughly than conventional television stations and the print media.

　　　My guest this time was Hideki Hirano, visiting professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, whose serious concern about the plight of Japanese forests and water sources has led him to author several books, such as Losing Japan’s Forestlands: Foreign Capital and Japan’s Water Resources (with geographer Yoshinori Yasuda.) ( Shincho-sha, Tokyo; 2010), and Foreign Capital Buying up Japan: Our Vanishing Public Lands (Shincho-sha, Tokyo; 2012).

　　　It is generally known that foreign capital has over the years been buying up forestland across Japan, especially watershed forests generating water resources. Professor Hirano’s account constitutes a blatant criticism of the Japanese government, as well as the general populace, for having sat idly by despite being aware of the situation.

　　　Prof. Hirano opened his discussion by showing a map of Japan with a number of islands and regions marked by circles and triangles from Hokkaido down to Okinawa. The circles indicated deals consummated, and the triangles on-going negotiations. Conspicuous was the number of islands marked by circles. Property on a string of islands around the Japanese archipelago has already been – or is in the process of being – purchased with foreign capital. The list includes Okushiri Island on the Japan Sea coast of Hokkaido; Sado Island in the Japan Sea off Niigata Prefecture; Tsushima Island located between South Korea and Japan in the Strait of Tsushima, off western Honshu; Takashima Island and Goto Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture on the edge of the East China Sea; Okinoerabu Island in Kagoshima Prefecture; and Ishigakijima Island in Okinawa Prefecture, to name just a few.

　　　Aside from these islands, Prof. Hirano also referred to a number of local towns and cities embracing important plots of land – such as the town of Iwanaicho on the Japan Sea coast of Hokkaido, which is marked with a triangle, and Chitose City and the town of Kucchan, Hokkaido, each marked with a circle, as well as Misawa City, Aomori Prefecture, with US Air Force and Japanese Air Self Defense Force bases (triangle). Solidly marked by a circle each are Niigata City in the middle of Honshu facing the Japan Sea, the exclusive Minami Azabu residential area in Tokyo, and Yanai City in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

　　　Countless other islands and plots of land have been bought up with foreign capital, notes Prof. Hirano, explaining:

　　　“What I show you today has been picked on the basis of strategically vital land around defense or nuclear power generation facilities, as well as remote border islands which have already been – or are in the process of being – bought up by non-Japanese entities. There may very well be serious national security repercussions.”

China’s Operation Pearl Necklace

　　　Although many of these regions and islands do not merit commercial  investment as they are unfit for lucrative resort development or forestry, they have tremendous importance as bastions of Japan’s national security.

　　　For instance, there are nuclear power generation facilities in Iwanaicho Town, Hokkaido. Sado Island, just across the Sea of Japan from Rajin, an ice-free North Korean port where China has a lease, is indispensable in order for China to keep watch over developments in the seas between it and Japan. While the strategic importance of Takashima Island in western Japan was little discussed in the past, Prof. Hirano explains its importance as follows:

　　　“There actually are four islands in Nagasaki Prefecture named Takashima. It is for land on the one closest to the Sasebo US Naval Base that negotiations for a possible sale are currently on-going. In point of fact, this island is right adjacent to the base.”

　　　If China acquires the island near Sasebo, which constitutes Japan’s front defense line on the edge of the East China Sea, it will seriously impede our national defense framework. Now that the techniques with which to steal electronic information within a distance of several hundred meters are solidly established, vital Japanese defense-related information would run the risk of being easily stolen by China. There is no knowing how the information may be utilized to the disadvantage of our nation in time of an emergency.

　　　Hirano believes that an estimated 90 percent of foreign capital that has bought up Japanese property is Chinese. Given this fact, a shape resembling a net encircling Japan by linking the islands and areas marked by circles or triangles lays bare an unmistakable Chinese intention.

　　　This shape reminds one of China’s Operation Pearl Necklace undertaken in the Indian Ocean to contain India. In the Indian Ocean China has secured a string of islands in which it built military strongholds obviously aimed at encircling India – a triangular land mass jutting out of the Eurasian Continent. These islands look like a pearl necklace tied together around India, which China is capable of tightening up to strangle India whenever it so desires.

　　　Purchases by foreign entities of plots of land in a chain of islands connecting Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Okinawa, can lead to a stronghold designed to overwhelm or contain Japan whenever China wants. It is Chinese capital that enables Beijing to exercise the power to carry out this strategy.

　　　Over the years, Prof. Hirano has kept sounding the alarm. However, the Japanese government has been unbearably slow in implementing measures to regulate foreign capital in connection with the purchase of property in Japan. Continues Hirano:

　　　“The Forestry Agency has announced that some 800 hectares of forestland across Japan, enough to swallow six 18-hole golf courses and related facilities, has been bought up with Chinese capital. In actuality, however, informed sources believe more than 10 to 20 times that number has been lost. The situation is extremely serious. The numbers reflecting the real situation are unavailable because the Japanese system requires only limited information from purchasers.”

　　　Hirano explains that pertinent facts about land transactions are not revealed because Japanese corporations and individuals have the right to make purchases as representatives of the Chinese without having to inform the authorities of the transactions or register the property in the new owner’s name. Until 1998, prior notification to the authorities was mandatory in all land transactions in Japan. Due to deregulatory measures implemented at the time, however, these transactions now fundamentally require only ex post facto notification, as the work involved was transferred from the central government to prefectural governments, which has made for further lax supervision.

　　　Local governments maintain that they cannot possibly manage or protect their domains sufficiently under such conditions, emphasizing that the power of local governments is grossly limited compared with the central government. In point of fact, the central government has received more than 100 petitions from local governments crying to have appropriate regulations implemented to safeguard their domains.

　　　“When the Democrats were in power, they formed a project team aimed at safeguarding our land. During a Diet session, a female parliamentarian demanded that the incumbent government clarify its stance vis-à-vis the growing petitions from local governments. But a Foreign Ministry official replied that he ‘personally failed to understand what the problem was.’ There was absolutely no sense of urgency on the part of the then government.”

Multi-Layered Restrictions on Land Purchases Elsewhere in the World

　　　The project team crumbled under its own weight then, with no further discussions held and no progress made. Professor Hirano surmises the reason:

　　　“What could one realistically expect from the Democrats? They put off all of the actions required – on the grounds that it would unduly increase their workload. Omission is the legacy they left, which is affecting us even today. ”

　　　It probably is correct to say that omission was a common characteristic of the government led until last December by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). And yet the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) – the incumbent government party – is hardly blameless for having created the fragile system that cannot prevent foreign nations, such as China, from acquiring precious pieces of property across Japan with ease. Among the pro-Beijing LDP parliamentarians are those who are extremely hesitant about implementing regulations on property transactions as they have concerns about rubbing the Chinese the wrong way.

　　　How, then, can we get over this crisis? First and foremost, Japanese – politicians and average citizens alike – must come to grips with the norm in the international community pertaining to land ownership, transaction, and supervision, as well as how grossly out of tune the Japanese practices are. Japan is said to be the only nation in the world that does not impose any regulations on land transactions – the only nation in the world unable to regulate how the purchased land should be utilized.

　　　There also is an opinion still prevailing among government quarters that as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), it would be difficult for Japan to regulate foreign capital in property transactions and its ex post facto use. Strong voices are heard among government officials who maintain that the Japanese government cannot impose restrictions because of Article 29 of the Japanese constitution, which sees as inviolable the right to own or hold property.

　　　However, China is a WTO member but refuses to sell even a square inch of property to foreign nationals or governments. And in countries like South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and India, stringent restrictions on the purchases of property by foreign capital exist. Purchases of property are possible in the US, Britain, Germany, and France, but transactions involving property in strategic areas are strictly prohibited. A would-be purchaser must clarify the purpose of the intended purchase in advance, and must be willing to agree to strict supervision afterwards. Cancellation of transactions due to political considerations is a matter of course. Each and every WTO member nation, except Japan, imposes multi-layered restrictions in order to safeguard its domain.

　　　Such a strict policy is taken for granted. Selling one’s land means selling one’ homeland itself. We must urgently implement measures to change the present state of affairs in this country which fails to restrict either the purchase and sale, or the use, of our precious lands.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 558 in the May 23, 2013 issue of The Weekly Shincho)