OREANDA-NEWS. The Government of Japan considers unacceptable the detention in the waters of the southern part of the Kuril Islands of five Japanese fishing vessels and requires their immediate return to their homeland with the teams. This was announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo by Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers Yoshihide Suga.

"We consider the detention of these vessels unacceptable, based on the position of the Japanese government regarding the four northern islands", he said. We demand, for reasons of humanity, to return the ships and their crew to Japanese ports as soon as possible. A corresponding submission has been sent to the Russian side".

The cabinet’s secretary general added that Tokyo was ascertaining that the ship’s documents of the detained schooners, as Russian border guards suspect, could have made false entries about the size of the catch. According to him, the detained fishermen do not experience health problems. A news agency, citing data from the Japan Fisheries Administration, previously reported that detained vessels were fishing for octopus in accordance with a bilateral agreement. The department said that now it clarifies the situation.