Tokyo lodged a protest with China on Saturday after spotting 230 Chinese vessels swarming waters near the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, an unusually large number, the Foreign Ministry said.
The roughly 230 fishing boats and six China Coast Guard vessels were confirmed in a contiguous zone near the uninhabited islets, which are also claimed by China.
The number of fishing vessels, which appeared to be escorted by the coast guard ships, was larger than has previously been spotted.
“This is a unilateral act that raises tensions … and it is unacceptable to us,” the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau director-general, Kenji Kanasugi, told the Chinese Embassy in Japan, the ministry said.
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