Unidentified submarine spotted in Japanese waters
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s navy forces went on alert early Wednesday after a foreign submarine was briefly spotted in its territorial waters, the government’s top spokesman said.
The sub’s country of origin and other details could not immediately be determined.
A reconnaissance aircraft and destroyer were dispatched to investigate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.
The aircraft confirmed the submarine had entered Japanese territorial waters near the Sakishima islands in southern Okinawa prefecture but that it later left, he said.
Defense chief Yoshinori Ono issued an alert order to the navy, Hosoda said without elaborating.
“It’s extremely regrettable,” Hosoda said. “We have to find out and examine the details, including its purpose and origin.”
Japan has been considering ways to boost its maritime defenses after a shoot out with a suspected North Korean spy ship in December 2001.
In that incident, Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats sank the suspected spy ship in a gunbattle off southwestern Japan. The patrol vessels returned fire only after the ship, ordered to stop, opened fire with a rocket and guns.
The Sakishima islands lie in waters between the northeastern tip of Taiwan and Okinawa’s main island — some 1,000 miles south of Tokyo.
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"Japan has been considering ways to boost its maritime defenses after a shoot out with a suspected North
Korean spy ship in December 2001."
But in this incident by the location (southern Okinawa) it is more likely China's sub.