A body was found inside a fishing boat Monday after the vessel with seven aboard capsized the previous day in waters off the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The body is likely to be of one of the seven missing crew, who are believed to consist of one Taiwanese and six Indonesians. The coast guard is continuing the search for the crew with patrol vessels and aircraft after receiving a report of the incident from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force at around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
The incident is thought to have taken place around 150 kilometers north of Ishigaki Island in Japan's southern island prefecture of Okinawa and about 40 kilometers east of Kuba Island, one of the Senkakus.
Patrol boats which arrived at the scene said that winds were blowing at 28.8 kilometers per hour and waves were around 1.5 meters high on Sunday afternoon, the coast guard said.
The Senkaku islets are controlled by Japan but claimed by China under the name Diaoyu, becoming a source of diplomatic friction with Beijing. Chinese coast guard vessels have repeatedly entered Japanese waters around the uninhabited islets.
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