Russian border security authorities seized five Japanese fishing vessels Tuesday and took them to the island of Kunashiri, one of the disputed Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, the Japanese government said.
The seizure of the boats, which were operating under a bilateral agreement on fishing around the islands, occurred because Russian authorities suspected discrepancies between the amount of fish caught by the boats and the figures recorded in their daily logs, Japanese government officials said.
The seizure of the boats came in the middle of a trip by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to Moscow for treaty negotiations with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.