ABSTRACT
As with the Kurile Islands and Takeshima/Dokdo, the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands represent one of the pending territorial disputes of Japan with its neighbours Russia, Korea and China respectively. One appealing suggestion that places importance on the sea as well as the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands proper, departs from the perspective of protecting the area's natural resources, long exploited by humans. There may be other rare and/or endemic species on the islands, and culling the goats that are currently running wild there would probably be a wise move. It would also help if links were formed with international organisations to help protect and preserve the islands' natural habitat. The involvement of Tokyo's metropolitan government would also be a bonus, since this has recently undertaken a cull of goats on the Ogasawara islands. Such steps would increase mutual trust, promote stability and peace in an otherwise tense region of the globe, while establishing a new Japan-China-Taiwan-Okinawa quadrilateral consensus not to 'touch' the sovereignty issue.
