{"id":76652,"date":"2026-03-09T09:54:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/09\/kasasa-island-japan-china-tension"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:54:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:54:43","slug":"the-half-abandoned-japanese-island-at-the-heart-of-tensions-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76652","title":{"rendered":"The half-abandoned Japanese island at the heart of tensions with China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kasasa island, in the Seto Inland Sea, has only seven residents but its fate is strongly intertwined with relations between Tokyo and Beijing<\/p>\n<p>His island home is shrouded in mist, but his union jack woolly hat makes Hideya Yagi easy to spot as he greets the approaching boat. The 80-year-old, a former president of a construction company, is pleased to see the small group of passengers disembark, mainly because he is one of only seven registered residents at their destination, Kasasa island.<\/p>\n<p>Kasasa is known as the \u201cHawaii\u201d of Japan\u2019s inland sea because of its warm climate and beautiful coastline. Yagi and his wife, Mihoko, eke out a quiet life alongside just one other couple and an elderly woman. The other two residents are almost always absent.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/09\/kasasa-island-japan-china-tension\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kasasa island, in the Seto Inland Sea, has only seven residents but its fate is strongly intertwined with relations between Tokyo and BeijingHis island home is shrouded in mist, but his union jack woolly hat makes Hideya Yagi easy to spot as he greets &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,88,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-china","category-japan","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76653,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76652\/revisions\/76653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}