Tokyo faults Beijing, yet makes a flimsy claim to expand EEZ

While pressing China to obey the "ruling" over the South China Sea issued by the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague on Tuesday, Japan presses on with a questionable "island" claim.

"The next flash point could be a bit closer to home," Japan Times said on Wednesday, in reference to Okinotori, two rocky outcroppings measuring 9 square meters in all upon which it bases its claimed exclusive economic zone.

The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has dismissed that the Okinotori outcroppings constitute an "island".