Arab News Japan

TOKYO: About 20 nationalist groups took turns in front of the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday to protest against Korea’s appropriation of islets known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

The nationalist groups, in their military uniform, have lodged official protests with the Korean government and demanded that all Koreans on the islets depart.

Japanese nationalist groups that patrolled in the embassy district were accompanied by a heavy police presence. The Embassy of the Republic of Korea has issued warnings to its nationals about the presence of these far-right groups.

Since 1952, the disputed islets have been a source of tension after a Korean navy ship fired on a Japanese patrol boat.

Tensions escalated between the two countries at the time of the Tokyo Olympics as a map produced by Japan said that the Takeshima Islands were an integral part of Japanese territory.

The Korean government says the islets have been an integral part of Korean territory since before the 19th century. For strategic and colonial reasons, Japan incorporated these islets into Shimane Prefecture under its colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century.