Yonaguni is the westernmost Japanese island, almost in sight of Taiwan and as close to the Chinese mainland as just about any part of Japan. Last year construction of a radio signals intelligence (sigint) station began there. On Iwo Jima, 1,860 km (1,160 mi.) to the east and far into the Pacific Ocean, the defense ministry is building another. Quite possibly, Yonaguni is already in the business of collecting information for the Japanese military. A hydrophone array, resting on the sea bottom, reportedly stretches northward from the island to the Senkaku Islands, listening for Chinese ships and submarines. These are only extensions to what is already an enormous system of surface stations, aircraft and ships that Japan has built up to achieve its stated aim of ensuring "information supremacy through continuous ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance]." Japan probably has the third- or fourth-largest sigint establishment in the world, ranking behind the U.S. and Britain but maybe ahead of Russia and China, say Australian researchers Desmond Ball and Richard Tanter.
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