Japan protests Chinese ships near disputed islands

The islets are also claimed by China, which calls them the Diaoyus, and the territorial dispute has been a long-standing sore point between the neighbors.

Relations deteriorated in 2012 when Tokyo “nationalized” some remote islands, and Japanese officials regularly protest the presence of Chinese coast guard and other vessels in surrounding waters.

The four Chinese coast guard vessels entered territorial waters controlled by Tokyo on Friday morning and left two hours later after repeated warnings from the Japanese coast guard, Hayashi said.

“The intrusion of Chinese coast guard vessels into our territorial waters constitutes a violation of international laws, which is why we lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels,” he told reporters, adding that the The incident “cannot be tolerated”.

A Japanese Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed it was the first time all ships in a group entering the waters had been equipped with such weapons.

Chinese ships have been repeatedly spotted near the disputed islets since 2012, but “in recent cases, only one in four Chinese ships in a group had what appeared to be a cannon,” the Chinese ship operator told AFP. spokesperson Takanori Fukuda.

In August 2016, as many as seven Chinese ships equipped with what appeared to be cannons transited near, but not within, Japanese territorial waters, according to Fukuda.

Last month, Japan said it had spotted Chinese ships sailing near the disputed islands for a record 158 consecutive days.

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