Japan broadcaster apologises after disputed Senkaku Islands called ‘Chinese territory’ on air

Japan ’s public broadcaster, NHK, has apologised after a member of staff referred to the disputed Senkaku Islands as “Chinese territory” during an internationally broadcast radio programme this week.

The presenter, a Chinese national in his 40s, made the unscripted remarks for about 20 seconds during a Chinese-language broadcast on Monday on the NHK World-Japan and Radio 2 channels, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

The reference to Chinese ownership of the islands came immediately after the presenter, who has not been named by Japanese media, read a report about the discovery of anti-Japanese graffiti at Yasukuni , a controversial war shrine that honours Japan’s war dead, including class-A war criminals such as prime minister Hideki Tojo, who was found guilty of “crimes against peace” over the second world war.

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The islands, which are administered by Japan, have long been a flashpoint between Japan and China, where they are known as Diaoyu. They attracted Chinese interest in the 1970s after studies suggested they could sit amid potentially huge deposits of oil and natural gas. They are also near vital sea lanes and surrounded by rich fishing grounds.

The presenter is expected to lose his job over the incident, media reports said, after NHK lodged a “strong protest” to an affiliate that has employed him to translate and reads news articles for the broadcaster since 2002.

“It was inappropriate that a statement unrelated to the news was broadcast, and we deeply apologise,” NHK said in a statement. “We will thoroughly implement measures to prevent a recurrence.”

The reference to the Senkakus is particularly embarrassing for NHK, which has traditionally echoed Japanese government positions on territorial disputes and historical issues such as the “ comfort women ”, a euphemism for tens of thousands of girls and women – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – who were forced to work in frontline brothels run by the Japanese military before and during the second world war .

Japan’s official position on the Senkakus is that the island’s are “clearly an inherent part of the territory of Japan” and “there exists no issue of territorial sovereignty to be resolved” between Tokyo and Beijing.

The simmering dispute over the islands came to a head in 2012, when the then rightwing governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, raised the idea of buying the islands from their private Japanese owners. That triggered an intervention from the central government, which bought the islands, effectively nationalising them.

The move sparked anti-Japanese protests in Beijing and other Chinese cities, and hundreds of Japanese firms temporarily closed their businesses in the country.

Chinese vessels regularly enter waters near the Senkakus, with Japan scrambling self-defence force jets in response. The territories were in the news again recently after the Japanese coastguard rescued a Mexican man who had become stranded on one of the islands after leaving the island of Yonaguni in a canoe in an apparent attempt to cross to Taiwan, 100km away.