Japan seizes Chinese fishing boat inside its economic waters amid rift with Beijing | Japan
Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain, in a move likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.
The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 170 kilometers from the southwestern port city of Nagasaki, took place after the captain refused an order to stop the ship for inspection, according to media reports.
A Japanese fishing agency ship intercepted the Chinese boat and its 11 crew members after detecting them in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline).
This was the agency’s first seizure of a Chinese fishing vessel since 2022 and the first such incident involving any foreign fishing vessel this year. In 2025, he inspected a Taiwanese and South Korean ship as part of a crackdown on illegal fishing.
The 47-year-old captain of the Chinese boat was arrested on suspicion of trying to evade inspection of the ship by a Japanese fisheries control officer. The Nikkei business newspaper said the ship appeared to be fishing for mackerel.
“The captain of the ship was ordered to stop for inspection by a fisheries inspector, but [it] In the statement made by the organization, it was said that “He did not comply with this and ran away” and “As a result, the captain was arrested.”
“We will continue to take decisive action in our enforcement activities to prevent and deter illegal fishing activities by foreign vessels,” Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters on Friday.
China’s foreign ministry has yet to comment on the incident, which comes at a tense time for bilateral relations, weeks after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sparked a furious debate over Taiwan’s future.
Speaking to lawmakers in November, Takaichi said Japan could intervene militarily if China attempted to invade Taiwan. Takaichi, who is considered a hawk on China, said his country’s self-defense forces could be deployed if a crisis in the Taiwan Strait created a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.
The remarks, which he refused to retract, led Beijing to urge Chinese citizens not to travel to Japan as tourists or students and to cancel cultural events.
The dispute is also thought to be behind the decision not to send giant pandas to Japan – a goodwill gesture that has been in place since the countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972 – after the departure of two animals from Tokyo zoo last month.
China and Japan are also in the middle of a long-running territorial dispute that has been exacerbated by the actions of fishermen. In 2010, the arrest of the captain of a Chinese boat near the disputed Senkaku islands triggered a major diplomatic row. The captain, whose boat collided with a Japanese inspection ship, was later released without charge.
Recent media reports have claimed that the Tokyo government has privately appealed to Japanese fishermen to stay away from the Senkakus to avoid provoking China. Surrounded by rich fishing grounds, the uninhabited islands are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as Diaoyu.
Officials in Japan, whose westernmost island Yonaguni is just 110 km from Taiwan, believe a crisis surrounding self-governing democracy could quickly threaten Japan’s security.
China insists that Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to achieve “reunification”.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te warned this week that China could target other parts of the region if it succeeds in seizing Taiwan.
Beijing will “become more aggressive, undermining peace and stability and the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific,” he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
“The next countries threatened will be Japan, the Philippines and others in the Indo-Pacific region, with their effects eventually reaching the Americas and Europe.”
In response to Takaichi’s comments, Beijing held joint air exercises with Russia, and in December jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked on the radar of Japanese aircraft in international waters near Nawa.
Takaichi, whose Liberal Democrat party won last week’s lower house elections by a landslide – thanks in part to strong public support for his stance on China – said this week he was “open to dialogue” with Beijing.
China’s foreign ministry said talks could not be held as long as Takaichi continued to choose “confrontation”.
“If Japan truly wants to develop a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship with China, it is very easy and obvious: to retract Takaichi’s erroneous remarks about Taiwan,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
