00:01Hitoshi Nakama says he's not just a fisherman.
00:04He sees himself as a frontline defender of Japan's claim to disputed islands in the East China Sea.
00:10Sailing over 100 miles from his home port on Okinawa's Ishigaki Island to the Senkaku Islands,
00:16Nakama dodges Chinese Coast Guard ships to fish in the contentious waters.
00:21But since late last year, some Japanese officials have been discreetly urging him and his peers
00:26to steer clear of the islands.
00:28That's according to Nakama and three other people with knowledge of the requests.
00:32Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama was a long-term advisor
00:36to the nationalist group that supports and funds Nakama's voyages.
00:40But at a meeting in Tokyo on December 19,
00:43Nakama says she appeared to put pressure on him to stay away from the islands.
00:48What Ministry Katayama said was small incidents can grow bigger and lead to war.
00:55So I think what she was really saying was that she didn't want me to go to the Senkaku Islands.
01:03The requests signaled an abrupt shift after years in which Tokyo testedly accepted such trips.
01:11The islands, administered by Japan but also claimed by China,
01:15have long been a flashpoint in relations between the two Asian powers.
01:19Ties have deteriorated since Japanese leader Senai Takaichi angered China in November last year
01:25by commenting on how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
01:30The Prime Minister's office and Japan's Foreign Ministry declined to address questions about the requests to fishermen.
01:36China's Foreign Ministry told Reuters some right-wing Japanese had repeatedly entered the waters of the islands
01:43in the name of fishing to provoke and cause trouble.
01:47It added that maritime issues should be addressed through dialogue and consultation.
01:55But Nakama and his nationalist backers say they are determined to reverse the decline in fishing around the islands,
02:01arguing that such activity helps demonstrate Japan's control.
02:05I'll go there for as long as I have this boat. I'll keep on going.
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