 She'd known the landowner (Kurihara family) for 30 years, and in 2011 he told her that he wanted to sell to Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara (whose nationalistic book he liked), instead of to the Government and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.The later proposed land swap, the former cash, and eventually the state bought the land for $25.5 million in 2012.Like Ishihara, Santo is affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi, which claims Japan's ownership of these islands, that are also claimed by China (as Diaoyu).