Ever since June, the number of China’s intrusion into Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands has increased. The China Coast Guard has been navigating in the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands on a daily basis, but its intrusion into Japanese territorial waters has occurred more frequently than ever before; there were six intrusion days in the first half of July alone, which is almost the same number of intrusion days in the month of entire May and April.

Besides from the situation around the Senkaku islands, in June, a Chinese research vessel, the Xiang Yang Hong 22, installed a small buoy in the Shikoku Basin, Japan's continental shelf in the Pacific Ocean north of Japan's southernmost island, Okinotori. The area in which the buoy was installed is situated outside Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the marine surveys conducted in waters above continental shelf do not require the consent of the coastal state. However, it is highly unusual to place a buoy in the waters under Japan's jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean. The Sikoku Basin was recognized as the Japan’s continental shelf by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2012, where Japan can exercise sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring the continental shelf and exploiting its natural resources. If the purpose goes beyond maritime surveying of seabed explorations and other related activities, there is a possibility of violation of the UNCLOS.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi said at the July 5 press conference that it was highly regrettable for the government of Japan that China had installed a buoy without any explanation and that Tokyo had asked Beijing to provide a transparent explanation. China replied, according to Hayashi, that the buoy would be for tsunami monitoring and was not intended to violate Japan’s sovereign rights over the continental shelf.

[Statistical Data as of July 15]

Japan Coast Guard (JCG) daily updates the statistical data on the number of China Coast Guard vessels entering in the contiguous zone around the Senkaku Islands and intruding into Japanese territorial waters. The below is from the website of JCG.

(https://www.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/ mission/senkaku/senkaku.html)

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