Chinese Ship Incident “Extremely Malicious”: Minister

December 28, 2018

Tokyo, Dec. 28 (Jiji Press)--Japanese fisheries minister Takamori Yoshikawa said Friday that an incident last month in which a Chinese fishing boat fled while

Japanese Fisheries Agency officials were on board for an on-site inspection was "extremely malicious."

At a press conference, he also said that Japan has protested to China through diplomatic channels.

While noting that the Fisheries Agency officials were safe, Yoshikawa declined to comment on details of the incident, which occurred off Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, as an investigation into the matter is under way.

On the country's decision to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume in July 2019 commercial whaling, Yoshikawa said, "We need to explain this carefully to the Japanese people and related countries." Jiji Press