Japanese authorities seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its skipper for allegedly defying an order to stop while within Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Nagasaki Prefecture, the Fisheries Agency said early Friday.
The incident marks the first time since 2022 that the agency has seized a Chinese fishing boat. The vessel is also the first foreign fishing boat seized by the agency this year.
The skipper, a 47-year-old Chinese national, was arrested Thursday and stands accused of trying to evade an on-board inspection by a Japanese fisheries control officer about 170 kilometers southwest of the island of Meshima in Goto, Nagasaki.
According to the agency’s office for the Kyushu region, the boat had a crew of 11.
The agency conducts on-board inspections and other operations against illegal fishing in waters around Japan. It said that it seized two foreign fishing vessels last year — one Taiwanese and the other South Korean.
In 2024, the agency conducted seven on-board inspections, seized a Taiwanese fishing boat and had 18 cases in which illegal fishing gear was confiscated, according to its annual report.
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