source: www.news.yahoo.com
Japan on Sunday released the
captain and crew of a Chinese boat who had been detained on suspicion of
illegal fishing, Chinese state media reported amid a festering territorial row
between the neighbours.
The 100-tonne coral fishing boat
with a crew of 13 was stopped on Saturday by a Japanese coastguard patrol in
waters some 45 kilometres (28 miles) northeast of Miyako island in the southern
Okinawan chain.
The skipper and all his crew were
released after the Chinese consulate general in Fukuoka submitted a bail
guarantee, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the consulate general.
The fishing boat and all its crew
departed Miyako for China late on Sunday, it said.
The Japanese coastguard said
Saturday that the captain had been arrested on suspicion of fishing in the
exclusive maritime zone without permission from Japan.
The incident occurred amid a
simmering dispute over the Tokyo-administered Senkaku islands, which China also
claims and calls the Diaoyus.
Miyako is about 210 kilometres (130
miles) off the biggest Senkaku isle.
The arrest was made on the same day
that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toured the southern region of Okinawa
near the disputed islands in the East China Sea, where he vowed to defend Japan
against "provocations".
Abe's comments came in the same
week that his government approved a rise in defence spending for the first time
in over a decade, explicitly aimed at beefing up defence of the contested
island chain.
Chinese government ships have
routinely circled the islands since September, when Tokyo nationalised some of
them.
Chinese planes have also
sporadically breached the airspace over them, stoking the long-running
sovereignty row.
It was the first time that the
captain of a Chinese fishing boat was detained in waters in the Okinawa region
since September 2010 when Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain after he
rammed his vessel against two coastguard patrol boats in waters around the
disputed islands, Kyodo news agency said.
The arrest sparked off a fierce
diplomatic protest from Beijing and Tokyo released the captain weeks later
without prosecuting him.
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