Four Japanese citizens, including municipal politicians, landed Tuesday on islands in the East China Sea at the centre of a bitter territorial dispute with Beijing, authorities said.
The group sailed to the uninhabited islets, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, aboard a fishing boat and stayed there for more than two hours, according to the Japan Coast Guard.
The move came as Japan and China commemorate the 40th anniversary of normalisation of diplomatic ties this year and attempt to improve their sour relationship.
Three people aboard the fishing boat, which sailed Monday from Ishigaki in Japan's far southwest, landed on one of the islands around 9:30 am (0030 GMT) while the fourth followed 20 minutes later, a coast guard spokesman said.
Of the four, two were identified as Hitoshi Nakama and Tadashi Nakamine of the Ishigaki municipal assembly, while the identity of the other two were not immediately known, he said. (AFP)
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