Japan opens radar station to close surveillance gap, watch East China Sea

An aerial view of the Yonaguni island, the location of the new Self Defence Force base, at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East .

Radar towers stand on Yonaguni island in Okinawa Prefecture in this March 13 photo. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

GSDF Coastal Surveillance Radar Station

Japan opens radar station close to disputed isles, drawing angry China response | Reuters

YONAGUNI, Japan (Reuters) - Japan on Monday switched on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed by Japan and China, drawing an angry response from Beijing.
The new Self Defence Force base on the island of Yonaguni is at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, 150 km (90 miles) south of the disputed islands known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) has a comprehensive architecture of ocean surveillance systems for monitoring the disparate challenges it faces in supporting its defensive activities, including SOSUS (sound surveillance system)-type submarine detection and tracking systems, high frequency direction finding (HF DF) facilities, ocean surveillance ships, and maritime surveillance aircraft. Information from all of these systems is integrated into the JMSDF’s Ocean Surveillance Information System (JOSIS), the current version of which is officially called the JMSDF OSIS Evolutionary Development (JOED) system, at the JMSDF’s Fleet HQ at Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture, on the western side of Tokyo Bay.

Related/ Background

• Japan opens SDF radar station on Yonaguni, near disputed islands - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
  
• With China in mind, Japan defense focus heads south- Nikkei Asian Review
• The Tools of Owatatsumi: Japan’s Ocean Surveillance and Coastal Defence Capabilities on JSTOR 
• Yonaguni - The Japan Times 
• Islanders seek injunction against GSDF deployment to remote Yonaguni | The Japan Times 
• Japan building radar near islands claimed by China | i24news - See beyond
• Japan demands China halt oil exploration in part of East China Sea - 92 News HD