evidence: While Japan may control the islands and calls them Senkaku, China calls them Diaoyu and also makes a claim. [...] The Japanese Government says it holds an historical and legal claim to the Senkaku Islands. It says an 1885 survey found they had never been inhabited nor under Chinese control, and were thus identified as terra nullius and legally claimed by Japan in 1895. [...] Thus Mr Biden's explicit recognition of the Senkaku Islands as Japanese territory affirms a US commitment to defend them.