Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain in a move that is likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing.
The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 170km from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports.
A Japanese fisheries agency vessel intercepted the Chinese boat and its 11 crew after spotting it in Japan’s exclusive economic zone – an area within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coastline.
It is the first time the agency has seized a Chinese fishing boat since 2022, and the first incident of its kind involving any foreign fishing vessel this year. In 2025 it inspected a Taiwanese and South Korean vessel as part of a crackdown on illegal fishing.
The Chinese boat’s 47-year-old skipper was arrested on suspicion of attempting to evade an onboard inspection by a Japanese fisheries control officer. The Nikkei business newspaper said the vessel appeared to have been fishing for mackerel.
“The vessel’s captain was ordered to stop for an inspection by a fisheries inspector, but [it] failed to comply and fled,” the agency said in a statement. “Consequently, the captain was arrested.”
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, told reporters on Friday: “We will continue to take resolute action in our enforcement activities to prevent and deter illegal fishing operations by foreign vessels.”
China’s foreign ministry has yet to comment on the incident, which comes at a tense time for bilateral ties, weeks after Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, sparked a furious row over the future of Taiwan.
Speaking to MPs in November, Takaichi said Japan could become militarily involved in the event of an attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Takaichi, who is regarded as a China hawk, said her country’s self-defence forces could deployed if a crisis in the Taiwan Strait created a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.
The remarks, which she has refused to withdraw, prompted Beijing to call on Chinese nationals not to travel to Japan as tourists or students, and led to the cancellation of cultural events.
The dispute is also thought to be behind the decision not to send giant pandas to Japan – a goodwill gesture in place since the countries normalised diplomatic ties in 1972 – after the departure of two of the animals from a Tokyo zoo last month.
China and Japan are also embroiled in a longstanding territorial dispute that has been exacerbated by the actions of fishers. In 2010, the arrest of the captain of a Chinese boat near the disputed Senkaku islands triggered a major diplomatic row. The captain, whose boat had collided with a Japanese inspection vessel, was later released without charge.
Recent media reports claimed that the government in Tokyo had privately urged Japanese fishers to steer clear of the Senkakus to avoid provoking China. The uninhabited islands, which are surrounded by rich fishing grounds, are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu.
Officials in Japan, whose westernmost island Yonaguni lies just 110km from Taiwan, believe a crisis surrounding the self-governed democracy could quickly threaten Japanese security.
China insists that Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out force to achieve “reunification”.
The Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te, warned this week that other parts of the region would be targeted by China if it succeeded in seizing Taiwan.
Beijing would become “more aggressive, undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the rules-based international order”, he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
“The next countries under threat would be Japan, the Philippines and others in the Indo-Pacific region, with repercussions eventually reaching the Americas and Europe.”
In response to Takaichi’s comments, Beijing conducted joint air drills with Russia, and in December jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft in international waters near the nawa.
Takaichi, whose Liberal Democratic party won last week’s lower house elections by a landslide – partly on the back of strong public support for her stance on China – said this week she was “open to dialogue” with Beijing.
China’s foreign ministry said talks could not take place as long as Takaichi continued to choose “confrontation”.
“If Japan truly wants to develop a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship with China, it’s very easy and clear: withdraw Takaichi’s erroneous remarks about Taiwan,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
