4 Chinese Ships Enter Japanese Waters off Senkakus

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Foreground to background, Minami-Kojima, Kita-Kojima and Uotsuri islands of the Senkaku Islands are seen from a Yomiuri Shimbun plane on Sept. 6, 2013.

Naha, Okinawa Pref.(Jiji Press)—Four Chinese coast guard ships entered Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on Monday.

It was the first intrusion into the waters by an official Chinese ship since Sept. 24 and the 25th this year.

The four Haijing ships crossed into the Japanese waters east-northeast of Kubashima, one of the islands, between around 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., according to the Japan Coast Guard’s 11th regional headquarters in Naha, Okinawa’s capital.

They left the waters at a point north-northwest of the same island between around 12:15 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.

The Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea are claimed by China, where they are known as Diaoyu.