Japanese lawmaker aboard fishing boat bound for Diaoyus
Member of prime minister's party aboard one of four fishing vessels that sailed for islands
A lawmaker from Japan’s ruling party was aboard one of four fishing boats that sailed yesterday for islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with China, the organiser said, as Chinese vessels loomed nearby.
Japan’s national broadcaster said one of the Chinese maritime surveillance ships had been within a kilometre of the fishing boats, in an incident that could further increase tensions.
Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Brunei, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi passed each other outside a meeting room without speaking, the Kyodo News agency reported.
There was no attempt by anyone on board the Japanese vessels to land on any of the islands, which Japan controls as the Senkakus, but which China claims as the Diaoyus.
“The purpose of dispatching the fishing boats is to fish in the waters,” an official from the nationalist Channel Sakura satellite broadcaster said, adding the company’s president was aboard one of the boats.
“Most of the people on this mission are fishermen,” he said, but noted that Kenji Yamada, a parliamentarian and member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party had also taken part in the mission.
The Japanese boats had left the area by the afternoon, he said.
