Japan's Foreign Ministry has filed a protest with South Korea over the visit by South Korean tourists on a disputed island, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa said Wednesday. Aisawa said he ''truly regrets'' the landing by the tourists on the South Korean-controlled Takeshima island in the Sea of Japan, known as Dokdo in Korean. The territorial dispute over the islets has heightened in recent weeks. The 60 tourists and reporters from South Korea were allowed to land on the uninhabited but fish-rich island Monday as an obvious move to counter a Japanese prefectural government's recent establishment of a commemorative day for the island. Access had been strictly limited since the island was designated as a natural monument in 1982. Aisawa said the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau chief Kenichiro Sasae lodged a protest with South Korea through the country's embassy in Tokyo on Monday. ''Japan and South Korea have differences in their positions concerning the Takeshima issue, but we must not fuel emotional confrontation over the issue,'' Aisawa said during a meeting of the lower house foreign affairs committee. Tensions between Japan and South Korea heightened after the local assembly of Japan's western Shimane prefecture recently designated February 22 as "Takeshima Day" to press Japan's claim on the disputed islets. On February 22, 1905 a notice was issued that claimed the islets part of Shimane prefecture. However, since the end of the World War II South Korea has laid claim to the islands, and since 1954 has maintained a small police outpost on there as a symbol of its ownership. Located 700 kilometres from Tokyo and 450 kilometers from Seoul, the islets are surrounded by rich fishing grounds.
