China has removed its last buoy from Japanese economic waters, a Japan Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday, in what may be a move by Beijing to improve ties.

Japan said in December it had spotted a new buoy in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) south of Okinawa Prefecture's Yonaguni Island, near Taiwan, and demanded that China remove it immediately.

The Japan Coast Guard issued a statement late Wednesday saying that the buoy was no longer in place.