Japan drives off Taiwanese boats

Forty Taiwanese fishing vessels which sailed into Japanese waters early on Tuesday around the group of disputed islands have left, Japan's coast guard said later in the day.

The vessels set off for the disputed Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu in Chinese), escorted by eight patrol boats, in an apparent show of defiance against Japan’s controversial nationalisation of three of the five disputed islands in East China Sea.

Japan’s coast guard was alerted of the fishermen’s plans to gather all available vessels within about 37 km of the islands and encircle them, the NHK TV channel reported. The coast guard responded by firing water cannons at the Taiwanese ships.

The islands have been at the centre of a dispute recently that has triggered violent anti-Japan protests across China and caused Japanese companies to suspend operations in China.

Both Taiwan - to which the pre-1949 Chinese government moved - and mainland China reject Japan’s claims to the islands, which were controlled by the US after World War II and given to Japan in 1972.

Beijing and Tokyo cannot agree on a maritime border in the economic zones around the islands.

Japan claims it has occupied the islands since 1895, while Beijing says Japanese charts dating back to 1783 show the islands as Chinese territory.

Japan also claims that China and Taiwan only began to take an interest in the islands in the 1970s, when evidence was discovered of major subsurface resource deposits in their territorial waters.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Osamu Fujimura said that despite the territorial dispute, Japan aims to resolve the conflict while maintaining friendly relations with Beijing.