The Japanese government on Wednesday published a video in Korean and eight other languages promoting Tokyo's colonial claim to Korea's Dokdo islets.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry posted the video on its website as part of a broader campaign by Japan's rightwing administration to stir voters with the rhetoric of resurgent nationalism and establish some sort of international legitimacy for the flimsy claim.
The video contains claims that Dokdo was not part of the territories Japan had to relinquish under the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, which formally ended the Japanese empire. It also claims that Japan officially claimed sovereignty over Dokdo in the 17th century, though for some reason this was not formalized by the Cabinet until 1905, the same year Japan strong-armed Korea into surrendering its diplomatic sovereignty
The video claims Korea broke international laws by "occupying" the islets in 1952.
The clips were also posted on YouTube.
The Korean Foreign Ministry summoned the chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Takashi Kurai, to lodge a protest and demand that the video be taken down.