“It is regrettable that a buoy was placed without providing details of its purpose,” Tokyo’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday, vowing that Japanese authorities would closely monitor the situation.
Experts say the dispute over Okinotorishima underscores the broader challenges Asian nations face in defining and defending their maritime boundaries in an era of growing competition over strategic waterways and resources.
“Japan is ticked off about this, but there is an argument that it does not have a particularly strong case,” said James Brown, an…
