VZCZCXRO6016
OO RUEHFK RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHOK #0088/01 0540621
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 230621Z FEB 06
FM AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0026
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 0379
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL PRIORITY 1057
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA PRIORITY 0094
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA PRIORITY 2207
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA PRIORITY 0109
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO PRIORITY 0106
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI PRIORITY 0177
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMUSJAPAN YOKOTA AB JA PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMUSKOREA SEOUL KOR PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OSAKA KOBE 000088 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AMEMBASSY SEOUL FOR YURI KIM 
AMEMBASSY SEOUL FOR JAMES WAYMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIS PGOV PREL JA KS
SUBJECT: TAKESHIMA DAY: THE VIEW FROM SHIMANE PREFECTURE 
 
REF: TOKYO 00925 
 
SHIMANE'S MISCALCULATION 
------------------------ 
¶1. (SBU) February 22 was the first time Shimane Prefecture 
celebrated Takeshima Day after enacting a controversial 
ordinance in 2005.  A contact confided that the prefectural 
assembly made a gross miscalculation about the Takeshima Day 
ordinance.  Meant more as a means of exerting pressure on the 
GOJ, no one in the prefectural government foresaw the 
reaction this would have in South Korea, according to 
International Affairs Director Satoshi Nakajima.  But now 
that the ordinance had passed, the prefectural assembly could 
not back down and repeal it.  They felt forced to carry out 
the celebrations, even though they realize now how it could 
further set back Japanese-Korean relations. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Nakajima was happy to report that the first 
Takeshima Day was "not as bad as last year" in the fallout 
over the ordinance.  250 riot police kept watch over events. 
The right wingers who led vocal demonstrations against the 
ROK last year were present, but quiet.  A delegation of city 
assembly members from Seoul who tried to protest inside the 
prefectural government building delivered a protest letter 
but were denied permission to pass out leaflets. 
 
WHY NOW: HISTORY AND ECONOMICS 
------------------------------ 
¶3. (SBU) Shimane Prefecture claims the Takeshima Islands 
(Tokdo in Korean) as part of its territory.  The purposes of 
Takeshima Day, according to the ordinance, are &to promote 
early reestablishment of Shimane,s territorial rights over 
the Takeshima islands and to enlighten public opinion 
throughout the country and prefecture about Takeshima.8 
This will be an annual event held each February 22.  Perhaps 
ignorant of the negative colonial context (reftel), Director 
General of Shimane Prefecture's Environment and Life 
Department Katsuhiro Inoue said that the 100th anniversary of 
Takeshima being officially designated part of Shimane gave 
the prefecture an additional impetus to create the ordinance. 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Although the talk is all about territory and the 
historical injustice of Syngman Rhee,s detention, and later 
expulsion and some deaths, of Shimane fishermen from the 
island over 50 years ago, the real issue for the prefecture 
is fishing rights.  The area between Honshu and the islands 
is a rich fishing ground for the prefecture,s fishing 
industry.  Given Shimane,s lack of jobs, isolation from even 
regional centers such as Hiroshima or Kobe, and poor economic 
performance, the fishing industry has political clout. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Inoue recounted how Shimane appealed to MOFA every 
year for decades to get the ministry to assert its 
territorial rights over the islands so that it could fish in 
the area.  Although the two countries reached an agreement on 
shared fishing rights, Inoue said that the ROKG was not 
honoring the terms of the agreement.  Worried that people 
would soon forget about Shimane,s claim to the territory, 
and ignored by MOFA, the prefecture decided to take matters 
into its own hands last year.  Inoue also added that he was 
concerned that China was watching the Takeshima issue 
closely, and might decide to follow the Korean example of 
&actual occupation8 in the Senkakus if the GOJ did not take 
action.  COMMENT: Clearly, the Takeshima issue is far more 
visceral to residents of Shimane than in far-off Tokyo.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Inoue did not stray from his rosy description of 
current prefectural relations with the ROK.  He pointed to 
the fact that Shimane and its Korean sister state, North 
Gyeongsang Province, were continuing grassroots exchanges 
even after the ordinance came on the books.  COMMENT: 
Technically speaking, sister-state relations were frozen by 
the North Gyeongsang governor following enactment.  The 
 
OSAKA KOBE 00000088  002 OF 002 
 
 
province delivered an ultimatum to Shimane: without a repeal 
of Takeshima Day, prefectural relations would be kept on 
hold.  But what Inoue's comment, and local press reporting, 
confirm is that two-way academic and cultural exchanges, and 
even "personal" travel of prefectural and city officials to 
South Korea to discuss further economic, cultural and 
political relations, have continued even after the creation 
of Takeshima Day.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶7. (SBU) In addition to media interviews, PR brochures, a 
month-long Takeshima photo display in the prefectural 
government building lobby, and prefecture-sponsored TV and 
magazine messages targeting the run-up to the 22nd, Shimane 
held a two-hour &Forum to Consider Takeshima.8 
Unfortunately, the prefecture did not invite representatives 
of the ROKG, or anyone with a Korean point of view, for that 
matter, to any of the events of Takeshima Day.  Inoue 
admitted that the forum was a one-sided event from Shimane,s 
point of view only, in which the governor, prefectural 
assembly and citizen representatives participated. 
RUSSEL