Latest news with #MasaakiKanai
13-05-2025
- Politics
China Seen Building New Structure in East China Sea
News from Japan Politics May 13, 2025 22:49 (JST) Tokyo, May 13 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it has confirmed moves by China to build a new structure on the Chinese side of the two countries' median line in the East China Sea. The structure is believed to be linked to resource development in the area. Masaaki Kanai, director-general of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, sent a written protest to Chinese Embassy official Shi Yong, the same day, saying that unilateral development efforts before the border of the two neighbors' exclusive economic zones is demarcated are extremely regrettable. Japan and China agreed in 2008 to jointly develop resources in the East China Sea, but talks to implement the deal have been halted. Beijing has continued development efforts since then, and 18 structures have been confirmed so far. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
Japan Times
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
China Coast Guard helicopter enters Japanese airspace near Senkakus
A China Coast Guard helicopter entered Japan's territorial airspace around the Japanese-controlled, Chinese-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Saturday — just the fourth such incursion by a Chinese aircraft ever. The Defense Ministry in Tokyo said that the Air Self-Defense Force had scrambled fighter jets after a China Coast Guard ship entered Japan's territorial waters around the islands and launched the chopper, which remained in Japanese airspace for about 15 minutes from 12:21 to 12:36 p.m. The ASDF fighter jets did not fire their weapons or deploy flares. The airspace violation was believed to be the first by a China Coast Guard helicopter. The China Coast Guard, meanwhile, said it had taken "necessary control measures," including launching a ship-based helicopter, to warn off "a Japanese civilian aircraft" that had entered the area. Japan's Foreign Ministry said its Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau director, Masaaki Kanai, had summoned the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo to the ministry, with Kanai 'strongly protesting' the chopper flight and demanding that Beijing prevent a recurrence. The Defense Ministry was analyzing the move. China routinely sends government ships to the waters around the Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu — including a record 355 days last year — as part of a concerted effort to press its claim to the area, which is rich in fish stocks and is also believed to be home to oil and gas deposits. Japan nationalized the Senkakus in 2012. Saturday's flight was the fourth violation of Japanese airspace since the current monitoring system was put in place in 2012 and the third around the Senkakus. Last August, a Chinese military plane was confirmed for the first time to have violated Japanese territorial airspace, with Japan strongly protesting the flight. That flight involved a Chinese Y-9 intelligence-gathering plane that briefly entered Japanese territory near the Danjo Islands off Nagasaki Prefecture. Japanese officials said in November that China had admitted that one of its military planes entered Japan's airspace, but said Beijing had claimed this was unintentional and vowed to take measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Some observers say moves such as this are intended to probe Japan's response time and erode the capabilities of its fighter jets. Saturday's incident comes on the heels of a visit to Beijing by a high-level delegation of Japanese parliamentarians from the ruling and opposition parties aimed at improving ties. That visit followed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November.
