Japan's Coast Guard will create a team of several hundred officers to focus on guarding waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in light of repeated intrusion and passage by Chinese ships in and around the territorial waters, sources close to the coast guard said last week.
The team, to be based at the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, will be equipped with more than ten patrol boats to provide greater security around the Japanese-administered islands from April 2015, the sources said.
The coast guard plans to request a budgetary outlay for construction of six patrol boats for the team as part of the fiscal 2012 supplementary budget, they said.
Chinese ships have been sailing frequently around the Senkakus since September 11, when the Japanese government purchased some of the islets from their Japanese owner and intruded into seas that Japan considers its territorial waters 21 times over the past four months.
It decided to set up the new team due to concerns that the frequent deployments of its patrol ships in the waters may keep the coast guard from engaging in usual duties such as rescuing people in the event of maritime accidents and that the tense standoff with Chinese ships will continue, they said.