Japan seizes fishing boat carrying Chinese activists.

According to Xinhua News Agency and a VNA correspondent in Japan, Okinawa Prefectural Police said Japan has arrested five Chinese activists from Hong Kong on a fishing boat.

These five were among a group of seven who landed on the Diaoyu Islands (known as Senkaku Islands in Japan) at around 5:30 local time on August 15, but two of them later returned to the ship.

The Diaoyu Islands, known as Senkaku by Japan. (Source: AP)

Earlier that day, the 11th Regional Coast Guard Office in Naha City, Okinawa, Japan, announced that at 2:20 PM, a ship carrying Hong Kong (China) activists had entered Japan's contiguous zone 44km west of Uotsuri Island in the Senkaku Islands, and that the ship had entered Japanese territorial waters at 3:50 PM.

Sources indicate the vessel was believed to be carrying members of Hong Kong's "Diaoyu Islands Defense Action Committee" into disputed waters with the intention of landing on the Senkaku Islands. Japanese coast guard ships used loudspeakers and radio waves to issue warnings.

Later that same day, the Japan Coast Guard established a Defense and Countermeasures Unit at Office 11. Meanwhile, the Japanese government upgraded the Information Liaison Office located at the Risk Management Center under the Prime Minister's Office to the Prime Minister's Office Countermeasures Unit.

In a related development, on the same day, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura announced that Tokyo protested to China over a Hong Kong fishing vessel carrying Chinese activists to the disputed Senkaku Islands.

The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to Tokyo, Cheng Yonghua, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deliver an official protest note to Beijing.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT