According to the South China Morning Post, the Tokyo Fisheries Service was forced to advise Japanese fishermen to go fishing elsewhere to avoid collisions, amid thousands of Chinese fishing boats operating in the Yamatotai waters.
The agency said on October 21 that by the end of September, its patrol boats had chased 2,589 Chinese ships out of the sea, nearly four times the same period last year.
The Japanese coast guard also confirmed that as of October 16, it had requested 102 Chinese ships out of the area, while there were only 12 such incidents in 2019.
The Yamatoai waters, 350 km from the Noto peninsula, are famous for catching surumeika and crabs in the late autumn months.
In previous years, Japanese officials had similar problems with Korean fishing vessels. 4,000 North Korean fishing vessels were ordered to leave the area in 2019. A Japanese coast guard collided with a Korean fishing vessel in October 2019, causing the fishing vessel to sink. 60 crew members were rescued and taken to other fishing boats.
This year, the Japanese coast guard only met one Korean fishing vessel, but replaced by thousands of Chinese fishing boats.
Akitoshi Miyashita, professor of international relations at Tokyo International University, said that the Japanese government may have made a mistake by asking fishermen to leave waters.
“The longer the Chinese are there, the harder it becomes for them to leave. The Japanese government has to do something to force these people to leave, because if they are not challenged and allowed to stay, then operating in those seas becomes a defined reality “, said Mr. Miyashita. “And then, there will be more Chinese ships going deeper into Japanese territorial waters.“
Analysts say there are a number of reasons why Chinese ships begin to appear off the northeast of Japan. It is possible that the Chinese side’s coastal waters have been overfished, causing ships to travel further distances to exploit.
Another theory is that China is testing Japan’s determination to territorial integrity, as well as the reaction of its coast guard and military.
“If the problem is finding new fishing grounds then this can be resolved in negotiations between the two governments. If that’s the other scenario and these are in fact government-approved actions, it is a much more serious problem“, commented Mr. Miyashita.