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Visitors to the National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty in Tokyo view an exhibit claiming Dokdo to be Japanese territory. (Hankyoreh archives)

The National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty (NMTS), a Japanese government museum that claims Dokdo as Japanese territory, is to be increased in size by seven times in a relocation scheduled for next January.

Seiichi Eto, the Japanese minister for territorial affairs, announced in a Dec. 17 press conference that the NMTS, which is currently located in the Municipal Research Building in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park, would be relocated on Jan. 21 to a bigger private building in the city’s Toranomon district. While the museum currently measures 100 square meters, the relocated museum is to measure 700 square meters.

“We are looking forward to operating the museum in conjunction with the relevant ministries so that it can function as a more attractive and effective base for sharing [Japan’s position],” Eto said. Plans to relocate and expand the museum were previously announced in a press conference in May by Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, the minister for territorial affairs at the time.

Opened in January 2018, the NMTS has drawn attention as the first institution for promoting territorial issues to be operated directly by the Japanese central government in central Tokyo. In addition to Dokdo, the museum also promotes Japan’s claims regarding the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands, which are the subject of an ownership dispute with China, and the southern Kuril Islands (called the “Northern Territories” in Japan), which are the focus of a territory dispute with Russia. An exhibition of photographs taken on the southern Kurils during Japan’s occupation of them, along with videos of Japanese people living there, is being planned for the new museum building.

Japan refers to Dokdo as “Takeshima,” which it claims as part of Shimane Prefecture. The prefecture has also held a “Takeshima Day” event every Feb. 22 since 2006. On Nov. 11, Shimane Gov. Tatsuya Maruyama paid a courtesy visit to Eto to deliver a letter calling for increased exhibition activities following the NMTS’s relocation. With the new museum being larger in scale, an increase is also expected in the number of exhibitions claiming Dokdo as Japanese territory.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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