evidence: The Senkaku Islands are situated in the East China Sea, 410 kilometers west of Okinawa’s main island, 170 km north of Ishigaki Island, 170 km west-northwest of Taiwan, and 330 km east of the coast of Fujian Province in China. For administrative purposes, the group is a part of the municipality of Ishigaki in the western part of Okinawa Prefecture, and it includes the following islands: Uotsuri (the largest), Kitakojima, Minamikojima, Kuba, Taishō, Okinokitaiwa, Okinominamiiwa, and Tobise. The islands have a total area of 5.17 km2, consisting almost entirely of rocky ground unsuitable for human habitation. [...] In the autumn of 1968, the year before the Satō-Nixon summit, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific conducted resource surveys across the East China Sea. The commission, for which Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were major members, reported the possibility of substantial seabed oil deposits in a 200,000 km2 area of sea northeast of Taiwan. It was not long after this, in 1970, that China began claiming the Senkaku Islands as part of its territory. [...] Japan has consistently maintained the view that "the Senkaku Islands are clearly an inherent territory of Japan, in light of historical facts and based upon international law," that "the Senkaku Islands are under the valid control of Japan," and that "there exists no issue of territorial sovereignty to be resolved concerning the Senkaku Islands."