Japan’s coast guard yesterday said it has arrested two Chinese boat skippers in separate cases of suspected illegal fishing in Japanese waters.
Officials said a 39-year-old skipper was arrested on Tuesday for alleged coral poaching off the Goto Islands near Kyushu and a second skipper was arrested on Wednesday near the Ogasawara islands, 1,000km south of Tokyo.
They said both allegedly ignored calls to stop for inspection, prompting a chase.
If convicted, the skippers could face up to six months in jail or a fine of up to ￥300,000 (US$3,840).
The arrests are a possible fresh test for sometimes fraught maritime relations, just days after a South Korean officer was stabbed to death at sea.
On Tuesday, a coast guard vessel pursued the fisherman’s 130 tonne boat for more than six hours after it was spotted lowering ropes into the water about 4km off the Goto Islands.
Japanese officers found some coral and tools to collect the organisms on the boat, but they have yet to determine whether they were taken from Japanese territorial waters, the coast guard said.
The boat’s captain, Zhong Jinyin (鍾進音), 39, was taken to the coast guard’s Nagasaki office while investigators inspected the boat, which had 10 other crew on board, a spokesman said.
The coast guard approached the boat at about 10:30pm on Monday, prompting the Chinese to flee, despite repeated Japanese orders to stop.
In total, five coast guard vessels took turns to chase the Chinese vessel until about 5 am, when the boat was stopped for an onboard inspection.
“We used a speed boat to bring the boat’s captain to [the coast guard’s office in] Nagasaki. The on-site investigation of the vessel is continuing, before we move the ship and the rest of the crew,” a spokesman said. “We are not experiencing any disobedient behavior from the captain.”
The latest arrest comes as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is scheduled to visit Beijing for two days, starting on Sunday.
China called on Japan to respect the rights of the fishermen.
“We have asked the Japanese side to ensure the safety of the Chinese crew and the boat, and ensure their legitimate rights and interests,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin (劉為民) told a press briefing.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS