If no agreement is reached in talks next week with China on natural gas development in the East China Sea, Japan is prepared to ensure the safety of Teikoku Oil Co. employees and protect the Japanese company's right to drill in disputed waters, Shoichi Nakagawa, minister of economy, trade and industry, said Wednesday.
"The final decision about whether or not to drill is up to (Teikoku)," Nakagawa said in a news conference following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's re-election. "But should the private company decide to drill, Japan will do its duty by it."
The two sides are embroiled in a bitter dispute about the tapping of natural resources in the East China Sea, where the two sides seek to stake territorial claims ahead of a United Nations ruling, due by May 2009, on where the demarcation line between the two countries should be.