Taiwan recalls top Japan rep as tensions rise over ship collision

A festering tiff between Taiwan and Japan over a ship collision in disputed waters dramatically worsened Saturday, when Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry announced the recall of the island’s top representative in Japan and plans to scrap a special ministry committee that handles ties with Tokyo. “We absolutely cannot accept Japan’s report on the incident,” said Foreign Minister Francisco Ou in a Taipei press conference. He was referring to a recent investigation findings report by Tokyo that found the Taiwanese fishing boat captain partially at fault for the incident.

Taipei will recall its de facto ambassador in Japan, Koh Se-kai, and terminate the ministry’s Committee on Japanese Affairs to protest the report, Ou added. According to the report, the Taiwanese captain was partially at fault for a collision between his boat, aboard which were 16 people, and a Japan Coast Guard vessel during an encounter near a group of Japanese-administered islets in the East China Sea known in Japan as the ‘‘Senkaku Islands,’’ in Taiwan as ‘‘Tiaoyutai’’ and in China as ‘‘Diaoyu.’’