Police on Aug. 15 arrested five Hong Kong activists who landed on the disputed Senkaku Islands after ignoring authorities’ repeated warnings to stay clear of Japanese territorial waters.
Japan's coastguard later arrested nine activists on their boat. In total, 14 activists had been detained.
According to the Japan Coast Guard, seven activists landed on a rocky outcrop of Uotsurishima islet of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea around 5:30 p.m. after they left Hong Kong on a fishing boat on Aug. 12.
Of the seven, two returned to their boat.
But the five others continued onto the islet and were arrested on suspicion of violating the immigration control law.
The arrest came after Coast Guard officials and the Okinawa prefectural police questioned them.
The vessel carried members of a Hong Kong group that claims sovereignty over the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese. Taiwan also claims the islets.
The boat was confirmed to be in the Japanese waters on the afternoon of Aug. 15.
The Coast Guard warned it to leave territorial waters via radio and sprayed water at the boat.
The landing by foreign activists on the Senkaku Islands marked the first since March 2004. Since 2009, the Hong Kong government has on six occasions stopped protest vessels from going to the islands.
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