MATSUE, Japan, March 10 (UPI) -- Japan's Shimane prefecture on Thursday approved a bill set to designate Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day" for islets claimed both by Japan and South Korea.
A total of 35 members of the Shimane assembly submitted the bill in a bid to urge the national government to move on the territorial issue involving the Takeshima islets in the Sea of Japan, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Thursday.
They said in the bill that Feb. 22 should be designated as Takeshima Day because the Shimane prefectural government decided on that day in 1905 that the Takeshima islets belonged to Japan.
South Korea, which also claims the islets as its territory, calls them Dokdo. The common English name for the islets is Liancourt Rocks.
The assembly reportedly will approve the bill March 16, despite the likelihood of incurring South Korea's wrath.
One of a few members in the assembly who is opposed to the bill said, "The national government should handle territorial issues exclusively. Local governments, which don't have diplomatic rights, cannot be responsible for such issues."
