South Korea protests Japan’s ‘Takeshima Day’ event over disputed islands

Key facts

• South Korea’s foreign ministry strongly objected to the ‘Takeshima Day’ event organised by Shimane prefecture and attended by a senior Japanese government official.
• The disputed islets are called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea and have been a source of tension since Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
• A South Korean coastguard detachment has been stationed on the territory since 1954.
• Shimane prefecture established ‘Takeshima Day’ in 2005, repeatedly triggering protests from Seoul.
• Seoul summoned a senior Japanese diplomat to lodge a formal protest over Tokyo’s territorial claims.
• South Korea claims the territory lies in fertile fishing grounds and may sit above substantial deposits of natural gas hydrate worth billions of dollars.