Okinotori: An Odd Place for a Maritime Dispute

A great deal of international attention has focused on China's attempts to force tiny reefs in the South China Sea to fit the formal U.N. definition of an island, but there has been little attention focused on Japan's similarly controversial claim to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on the Okinotori Atoll. Japan is a key U.S. ally and a potential counterweight to China, and because the geopolitics of Asia is defined by water, the status of a particular island, reef or even rock can become crucial to national strategies in the region....