Incident happened as China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was hosting Japanese envoy in Beijing
A Chinese fishing boat captain has been arrested in waters close to Japan, according to state media in the island nation.
Chen Wenting, 40, was detained by the Japanese coastguard on Saturday morning on suspicion of violating Japan’s fishing rights and trying to avoid inspection, NHK reported.
The incident happened on the same day China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told visiting Japanese senior deputy minister for foreign affairs Takeo Mori that 2019 was going to be an “important year” for ties between the two countries.
Chen and his crew of 10 were spotted inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, about 300km (186 miles) southeast of Hahajima, a tiny island in the western Pacific about 1,000km south of Tokyo, the report said.
