Japan has for the first time released plans to evacuate more than 100,000 civilians from some of its remote islands near Taiwan in the event of conflict in the region, amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

Under the contingency, ships and planes would be mobilised to take about 110,000 residents and 10,000 tourists off five islands in the Sakishima chain in Japan’s far south-west.

The evacuees would be taken to eight prefectures in south-western and western Japan within six days, according to the Kyodo news agency. Evacuees would be transported by private ferries or by air to Kyushu, one of Japan’s four main islands, before being sent on to accommodations in other destinations.

Tokyo said it planned to conduct evacuation drills on the Sakishima islands, which are part of Okinawa prefecture, from April next year.

The prospect of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims is Chinese territory and believes should be “reunified”, has forced Japan to step up measures to protect remote islands that could become embroiled in any conflict in the strait.

China has intensified military pressure on Taiwan in recent years and has not ruled out using force to bring the self-governed island under its control.

Japan’s government also plans to deploy surface-to-air guided missile units on Yonaguni, located 100km from Taiwan. The island, host to a Japanese self-defence force base, is constructing temporary underground shelters stocked with enough food and water for two weeks, Japanese media have reported.

Gen Nakatani, the defence minister, said in January that he felt a “strong sense of crisis” among residents living on Japan’s remote border islands. “I want to take all possible measures for the defence of our country,” he said, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.

Taiwan was not specifically named in the plans, but concern that the island democracy could become a military flashpoint has risen since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the return of Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy, with some local officials questioning Washington’s commitment to protecting Taiwan and US allies in the region.

The evacuation plans were widely reported in Taiwan, where most outlets connected it to cross-strait threats and the changing US relationships. “It feels more and more like a war,” one reader commented in a local news report.

“The Japanese also know that Trump will not protect Taiwan,” said another. “Even if they provide weapons to Taiwan, they may not win. In order to avoid getting burned, they have already thought of a way to retreat. But has our government thought of a way to protect the people?”

Earlier this month, Japanese media reported that the government was planning to deploy long-range missiles on Kyushu amid concerns that the Trump administration’s stance on the countries’ postwar security pact, which commits Washington to defend Japan if it comes under attack.

Trump has complained that the Japan-US security treaty was nonreciprocal, saying in early March: “We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us.

“That’s the way the deal reads … and by the way, they make a fortune with us economically. I actually ask, who makes these deals?”

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said the evacuation plans had been drawn up “on the assumption [Japan will encounter] a situation where armed attacks are predicted”, Kyodo said.

Okinawa, home to almost 50,000 US troops, could play a key military role in the event of a Taiwan emergency. Japan is also embroiled in a dispute with China over the Senkakus, a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Tokyo but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu.