- TOKYO: Authorities launched a criminal investigation Monday into the leak of a video of a collision between Japanese coast guard vessels and a Chinese fishing boat that appeared on the Internet and raised concerns of renewed Japan-China tensions.
The video, which appeared on YouTube on Friday, shows footage taken Sept. 7 of the collision near a group of disputed islands claimed by both Japan and China in the East China Sea.
The run-in sparked a high-level political rift between the countries. The coast guard requested that Tokyo prosecutors and police investigate to determine if the video was leaked by a government employee in violation of criminal codes. The video is also evidence in a continuing case against the captain of the Chinese fishing vessel, and such evidence is not released to the public.
"In order to quickly resolve the facts behind this incident, we filed a criminal complaint, because there are limits as to what we can achieve with an internal investigation," said coast guard chief Hisayasu Suzuki.