The 14 members of the crew have been released Chinese state media says Japanese authorities have released the crew of a Chinese fishing trawler seized last week in the East China Sea, Chinese state media says.
The news comes a day after China’s top diplomat appealed to the Japanese to free the crew.
The fishing boat reportedly rammed Japanese coast guard patrol boats which had been trying to intercept it.
The incident occurred off an island closer to Taiwan than to Japan, and claimed by both Japan and China.
Xinhua, the Chinese state broadcaster, said 14 crew members had been released, but did not specifically mention the captain, who has been formally arrested by the police.
On Sunday Chinese diplomat State Councillor Dai Bingguo warned Tokyo to make a “wise political decision” over the matter.
China cancelled a series of diplomatic negotiations with Japan over oil and gas fields in the region in protest.
The Japanese had said the men could be held for 10 days while evidence about the collision was collected.
The Chinese foreign ministry said any evidence collected by Japan on the collision would be “illegal, invalid and in vain”.
The area where the Chinese trawler was seized on Tuesday is close to uninhabited islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, which are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
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