NHK has learned that the Japanese government is arranging to form a taskforce charged with drawing up a plan to evacuate people from the country's remote southwestern islands in the event of a contingency involving Taiwan.

China's hegemonic behavior has been raising international concerns over such an emergency. The Japanese government has been discussing how to protect people in Okinawa Prefecture and other parts of the country that are situated close to Taiwan.

The government is now coordinating to set up a taskforce at the Cabinet Secretariat in the new fiscal year starting in April. The new group will create a plan for evacuating people from Okinawa's Sakishima Islands and elsewhere in case of a Taiwan contingency.

The taskforce will formulate procedures to swiftly move about 120,000 people to areas outside their islands by air and sea. It will also launch talks with prefectural officials in the southwestern region of Kyushu to secure accommodation facilities that will take in evacuees.

The taskforce will aim to compile an initial-stage evacuation plan by March next year.