In the first case in March 1999 the SDF chased two North Korean spy ships and fired warning shots after the ships were spotted off the NotoPeninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Oku-noto no Aenokoto is an agricultural ritual transmitted from generation to generation by the rice farmers of the NotoPeninsula, which projects from Ishikawa prefecture in the centre of Japan s main island, Honshu.