TOKYO - A Chinese Navy survey vessel briefly entered Japanese territorial waters on Saturday, Japan’s defence ministry said.
The ship was detected in Japanese territory off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, in the southwest of the country, at around 6am local time, and had departed by 7.53am, the ministry said on its website.
The incursion marked the tenth time over the past year that a Chinese Navy survey ship had sailed through Japanese territorial waters, and the 13th time if submarines and intelligence-gathering vessels are included, according to the national broadcaster NHK.
The incident came less than a week after Tokyo strongly protested against an airspace breach by a Chinese military aircraft.
Japan again protested to China and conveyed its strong concern through diplomatic channels, the defence ministry said.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force sent a minesweeper and patrol aircraft to monitor the Chinese vessel.
Survey vessels are often used to conduct research on underwater topography for submarine navigation.
Japan on Monday confirmed for the first time that a Chinese military spy plane had violated Japanese airspace over waters in the East China Sea off islands in the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki.
In recent years, Chinese ships have also repeatedly entered Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea, around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, which China claims and calls Diaoyu.
The ship was detected in Japanese territory off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, in the southwest of the country, at around 6am local time, and had departed by 7.53am, the ministry said on its website.
The incursion marked the tenth time over the past year that a Chinese Navy survey ship had sailed through Japanese territorial waters, and the 13th time if submarines and intelligence-gathering vessels are included, according to the national broadcaster NHK.
The incident came less than a week after Tokyo strongly protested against an airspace breach by a Chinese military aircraft.
Japan again protested to China and conveyed its strong concern through diplomatic channels, the defence ministry said.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force sent a minesweeper and patrol aircraft to monitor the Chinese vessel.
Survey vessels are often used to conduct research on underwater topography for submarine navigation.
Japan on Monday confirmed for the first time that a Chinese military spy plane had violated Japanese airspace over waters in the East China Sea off islands in the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki.
In recent years, Chinese ships have also repeatedly entered Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea, around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, which China claims and calls Diaoyu.
