Japan lodges formal protest over Chinese survey ship entering its territorial waters

Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan lodged a formal protest via China’s embassy against what it called an incursion by a Chinese survey ship into its territorial waters. The Japanese foreign ministry relayed “strong concern” Saturday after the ship was spotted near Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, early in the morning. The Chinese ship, confirmed in territorial waters at 6 a.m. local time, left shortly before 8 a.m., according to Japan’s Defense Ministry, adding it was monitored by a Japanese military vessel and plane. This follows Tokyo’s protest after a Chinese military aircraft briefly entered Japan’ssouthwestern airspace on Monday.