On Aug. 16, in disputed territorial waters north of Hokkaido and south of the Habomai group of islets, a Japanese fisherman was killed by a shot fired from a Russian Coast Guard patrol boat. Three other crewmembers of the Japanese fishing vessel Kisshin Maru No. 31 were arrested on the spot by Russian authorities and taken into custody on Kunashiri, one of the disputed islands in the southern Kuril archipelago known as the "Northern Territories" to the Japanese.