Japan and China’s historic dispute regarding ownership of a chain of islands in the East China Sea has recently resurfaced.
The islands, referred to as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, began to be a source of tension in the 1970’s when oil resources were discovered in the area. They are close to a continental shelf, a shallow formation along the coast of a landmass that can go deeper into the ocean, making it easier to extract natural resources.
“The islands appear [culturally] to be much more connected to the Asian mainland. Historically, however, Japanese have a claim that is documented across time,” said Alex Papadopoulos, a geopolitics professor at DePaul.