Japan spots Chinese ships near Senkaku Islands for record 158 days

Japan has spotted Chinese ships sailing near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea for a record 158 consecutive days, Tokyo's top government spokesman said Monday.

The territorial dispute over the Tokyo-controlled islets, known as Senkakus by Japan and Diaoyu by China, has been a long-standing sore point between the two countries.

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

On Monday, the Japanese Coast Guard observed four vessels from the Chinese Maritime Police Bureau sailing in the “contiguous” zone adjacent to Japan's territorial sea, near the island chain.

The contiguous waters are a 12 nautical mile strip that extends beyond territorial waters.

It was the 158th consecutive day that Chinese boats were spotted there, surpassing the previous record of 157 days in 2021, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

“The government considers this series of navigations in the contiguous zone and intrusions into territorial waters as an extremely serious problem,” he told reporters.

Hayashi said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed concerns over the issue during a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Seoul on Sunday.

Kishida is in the South Korean capital for the first trilateral summit between Japan, China and South Korea in almost five years. It was held Monday morning.

In April, Beijing lodged a protest with Tokyo after a group of Japanese lawmakers visited the disputed islands, a trip the Chinese embassy called “provocative.”

After years of negotiations, the two countries set up a military hotline to avoid unexpected clashes in the East China Sea, with the first call taking place a year ago.