The uninhabited Senkaku islands, which have been administered by the Okinawan local government, have been claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan. The vicinity of the disputed islands has long been identified as possessing potential oil and gas resources. The territorial disputes have been intensified after the Japanese government nationalized the islands in 2012. The situation has been regarded as the most serious for Sino-Japanese relations in the post-war period in terms of the risk of militarized conflict. The Chinese government used “core interests” to describe national sovereignty over the islands which it will make no compromise at any price, while the Japanese government hardened its stance by insisting that there is no territorial dispute to negotiate with China over the islands. The peaceful settlements on the disputed islands are complicated because it involves history, economy, security and nationalism. This paper argues that the best way to ease territorial disputes will be to create a common economic zone based on mutual understanding and economic interests through the wisdom of the islands of Okinawa and Taiwan based on a growth triangle (GT) approach. China has been claiming that the disputed islands are under Taiwan’s jurisdiction. Both Japanese and Chinese central governments should leave all powers to both Okinawa and Taiwan governments for peaceful, joint development of the disputed waters.

The development of Micro MIM as a new manufacturing process for metallic micro parts made of advanced functional materials has been the subject of considerable research over the last years. This paper addresses important quality aspects on processing of new materials by Micro-MIM. Three examples of new functional materials that can be processed are reviewed in this paper. The first example is two-component-Micro-MIM to obtain multi-functional devices. A micro positioning encoder consisting of a magnetic / non-magnetic material combination is presented. The second issue is series production of the replicate of the smallest human bone in the ear (stapes) from Titanium as an example of medical application. Quality assurance and reproducibility in terms of injection moulding parameters are addressed. In the third part, first results on the processing of the shape memory alloy NiTi by Micro-MIM are presented. Potential applications include biocompatible devices and transportation, for example automotive and aerospace. Processing routes and initial microstructures obtained are discussed.