Two Japanese Coast Guard ships are on guard Saturday to prevent a Chinese Coast Guard ship from approaching the research ship off the coast of the Senkaku Islands. Uotsuri Island can be seen in the background.
20:47 JST, April 27, 2024
An environmental survey of the Senkaku Islands and surrounding waters conducted by the municipal government in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, had to be halted on Saturday after a Chinese coast guard ship came within 1 kilometer on Saturday.
This is the municipality’s third investigation since January last year. On Saturday, the second day of the latest investigation, several media crews were present, including The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Since the central government does not allow landings on the Senkaku Islands, the survey was conducted at sea. Around 7:40 a.m., researchers from Tokai University, who were put in charge of the investigation by the city government, flew a drone from about 1.8 kilometers off the coast of Uotsuri Island and recorded video for about 15 minutes.
A second recording session was scheduled to take place just after 8 a.m., but when a Chinese vessel approached the research vessel, researchers deemed the situation dangerous and canceled the session. Two Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships sailed between the Chinese ship and the research ship to block any further approach.
According to the JCG, two Chinese Coast Guard vessels entered Japanese territorial waters off the coast of Minami-Kojima in the Senkaku Islands around 5:14 a.m. on Saturday. Chinese ships have entered Japanese territorial waters for three consecutive days since Thursday, the thirteenth time this year. They left territorial waters around 9:50 am
