China survey ship leaves Japan's exclusive economic zone after coast guard order

Japan’s coast guard said on Tuesday (Oct 6) that a Chinese survey ship had left Tokyo’s exclusive economic zone after being ordered repeatedly to stop research operations Japan said were unauthorised (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-china-survey-ship-leave-tokyo-economic-waters-6435681).

The vessel, the Chinese research ship Kexue, was first spotted on Sept 27 in waters around 70km north of Ishigaki island, in Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, “intermittently extending wire-like objects into the sea from her side and stern”, coast guard spokesman Masashi Asano told AFP.

The ship eventually left on Friday after the coast guard sent “radio messages demanding the survey be halted, stating that scientific research in our maritime zone without … consent will not be tolerated”, Asano said.

There have been 14 unapproved Chinese surveys in Japan’s EEZ so far this year, compared with six last year and one or two in each of the three years before. Asano said the frequency had “surged” since around the time Japan and the Philippines announced they would begin maritime border negotiations.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Ferdinand Marcos agreed on May 28 to start formal talks to delimit the EEZ and continental-shelf boundary between the two countries. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, scientific research in an EEZ — up to 200 nautical miles (370km) offshore — requires the coastal nation’s agreement.

Takaichi called China an “important neighbour” in a policy address on Monday and pledged to build a stable relationship, even as the two coast guards continue to face off around the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands claimed by Beijing (https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2026/10/06/chinese-survey-ship-leaves-japan-s-exclusive-economic-zone-after-protest).