Japan-China boat spat escalates
The captain of the Chinese trawler, Zhan Qixiong, has been transferred to Japanese prosecutors China has warned Japan that their wider relationship will suffer if Tokyo mishandles a dispute about a Chinese fishing boat seized in disputed waters.
China's foreign ministry said it was "absurd and illegal" for Japan to apply domestic law in "China's territory".
The captain of a Chinese trawler that collided with Japanese patrol vessels has been handed to prosecutors who will decide whether to charge him.
Tuesday's incident happened near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
There were no injuries, and the two Japanese vessels sustained minor damage.
Analysis
The exchange of protests between China and Japan has something of the air of a ritual.
For now neither country seems to want to dramatise the incident.
But the episode illustrates the underlying tensions in the region where competing claims for small island territories reflect major strategic and economic issues.
Oil and gas rights could be valuable assets for the future.
But the continuing maritime tensions between China and its neighbours reflect a growing desire by the Chinese to pursue a more expansive naval strategy and to break out from the containment of the island chains that stretch from Japan to Taiwan and well into the South China Sea.
The uninhabited islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan, but are also claimed by China and Taiwan.
Tokyo says the Chinese vessel collided with two Japanese patrol boats in two separate incidents, 40 minutes apart.
The captain of the fishing boat was arrested after repeatedly ignoring requests to leave the area, officials said.
China has demanded his release.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu described the move as "absurd, illegal and invalid, and China will never accept it".
Beijing has twice summoned Japan's ambassador and urged him to stop the "illegal interception" of Chinese fishing boats, and to release the boat and the crew detained onboard.
In recent years, Chinese activists have sailed to the islands on a number of occasions to assert China's territorial claims.
Analysts say this latest incident is unlikely to disrupt Japan-China ties but it underscores the inevitable tensions as China's maritime ambitions grow
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