Japan's Foreign Ministry intends to demand an immediate release of the four Japanese fishing boat that were detained on Thursday on suspicion of engaging in unlawful fishery operations off South Kuril Islands, Itar-Tass reports.
The NHK television network reported that Tokyo through diplomatic channels is urgently ascertaining the fate of the boats and of their crewmembers. According to information available, none of them was hurt during the border guards' detaining operation.
Tokyo does not recognize Russia's right to detain Japanese poachers near the South Kuril Islands, since it views them as its own "northern territories". At the same time Japanese authorities demand that their fishermen strictly abide by the rules for fisheries in that area and discourage them from crossing without permission the line that separates the two countries' zones of control near South Kuriles.
Andrei Burlak, chief of the Sakhalin coast guard department of Russia's Federal Security Service, announced in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk earlier in the day that the Japanese boats had been spotted in Russian territorial waters in Kunashir Strait at 07:33 local time. "It was supposed that they were engaging in unlawful fishery operations. But an exact information will be available after the boats have been inspected," Burlak said.