In this Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 file photo, Japan Coast Guard security team members display tracking and capture drills by rigid-hulled inflatable boats against an unidentified ship at sea in Yokohama near Tokyo during an inspection tour by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte proposed joint military exercises with Japan during his visit to Tokyo, while reiterating that he will not conduct them with Americans in his presidency. Duterte made the proposal during his visit to a coast guard unit to observe an exercise from one of the patrol vessels Japan pledged to provide the Philippines to upgrade Manila's maritime security capabilities, largely in response to China’s strong assertions of its South China Sea maritime claims.
Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP, File
TOKYO — Japan's government has lodged a protest with China over drilling activity in the waters between the two countries.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that Japan had confirmed that a moored Chinese drilling ship is conducting some kind of activity in the East China Sea.
He called China's oil and gas exploration efforts "extremely regrettable" at a time when the maritime boundaries between Japan and China have not been established.
Japan has complained about similar activity before, largely in the waters between the Chinese mainland and Okinawa and other southern Japanese islands.
The two countries also are entangled in a dispute over a group of uninhabited islands that they both claim farther south in the East China Sea.