中国人船長釈放は菅元首相指示　前原元外相が証言

　旧民主党政権下の２０１０年９月に沖縄県尖閣諸島沖で起きた海上保安庁巡視船への中国漁船衝突事件について、国民民主党の前原誠司元外相は８日、当時の菅直人首相が公務執行妨害で逮捕した中国人船長の釈放を指示したと証言した。
　前原氏によると、菅氏は同年９月１８日、国連総会に向けた首相公邸での訪米勉強会の席上、前原氏ら外務省幹部に対し、「中国に船長を返せ」と発言した。１１月に横浜市でのアジア太平洋経済協力会議（ＡＰＥＣ）首脳会議を控えており「（菅氏は）俺のＡＰＥＣを台無しにするのかという感じだった」と振り返った。
　この後、前原氏は仙谷由人官房長官（当時）に「首相の意向」を伝え、那覇地検は船長を処分保留で釈放。政府は当時「（釈放は）検察独自の判断」「政治介入は一切なかった」と説明していた。（2020/09/08-22:15）

Naoto Kan, prime minister of Japan at the time of a collision between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japan Coast Guard ships in September 2010, ordered the release of the captain of the Chinese ship, then Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has said.
   In the incident, the Chinese ship collided into the coast guard's Mizuki and Yonakuni patrol ships in waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Sept. 7, 2010, and the captain of the fishing boat was arrested by Japanese law-enforcement authorities the following day for obstructing the coast guard's official duties.
   At a study meeting on Sept. 18 that year for Kan's visit to the United States to attend a U.N. General Assembly meeting, the head of the then Japanese government led by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan told Maehara and other senior Foreign Ministry officials to "return the captain to China," Maehara said Tuesday.
   Kan looked concerned about a possible impact of the incident on the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, in November the same year, according to Maehara, now a member of the major opposition Democratic Party for the People.
   After the study meeting, Maehara informed then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku of "the prime minister's wish," the former foreign minister said. The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, released the captain of the Chinese ship later in September 2010.