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Japan to launch coastguard unit for disputed islandsAFP TOKYO--Japan's coastguard said Tuesday it would create a special unit comprising 10 new large patrol boats to boost its surveillance of an island chain at the center of a territorial row with China.
January 30, 2013, 12:07 am TWN The force, to be completed over three years, will consist of about 600 personnel and include an additional pair of existing helicopter-carrier vessels that are to be refitted, a coastguard spokesman said. “We see it as necessary to assign large-scale patrol boats specially to cope with the situation in which Chinese government ships have become ever present in waters surrounding the Senkakus,” the spokesman said. Four of the 10 new boats are already under construction. Funding to build the six others was included in an extra government budget approved this month.
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