Japan shows its colors with different standards on freedom of navigation

Japan asks China to respect "freedom of navigation" when it talks about the South China Sea. But that freedom does not apply to other waters.

When China's naval ships passed by waters close to Japan (one frigate off China's Diaoyu Islands on June 9 and the other vessel through the Tokara Strait on June 15), Japan summoned China's ambassador in Tokyo to lodge a protest and criticized China for the "heightened tension" in the East China Sea.

Japan said the first Chinese warship was in its contiguous zone and the second in its territorial waters.