Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- Dozens of fishing boats and 12 coast guard ships from Taiwan briefly entered waters close to a disputed island chain in the East China Sea , Japan 's Coast Guard said on Tuesday . The Coast Guard said the vessels had left Japanese territorial waters by noon local time after it issued a warning and fired water cannons at the ships . It said the Taiwan coast guard vessels fired water from high-pressure hoses in return . It added that 10 Chinese surveillance ships were in the area but none had strayed into waters regarded by Japan as its territory . The long-running dispute over the islands has flared up in recent months , triggering anti-Japanese protests in China . Taiwan , China and Japan all claim ownership of the islands . Read more : Behind the islands dispute . Taiwan news agency CNA said that up to 100 fishing boats , escorted by 10 coast guard ships , were making the voyage to assert local fishermen 's rights to operate in the waters . It said the fishing boats came as close as three nautical miles to the islands before turning away . Wang Jinn-wang , head of Taiwan 's Coast Guard Administration , was quoted as saying the flotilla was `` the biggest ever action '' to support Taiwan 's sovereignty over the islands . CNA said the island chain lies 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan . Earlier this month , the Japanese government bought the disputed islands -- known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China and Taiwan -- from the Japanese family that owned them for 2.05 billion yen ( US $ 26.2 million ) . The move infuriated China . Protests erupted across dozens of Chinese cities , forcing the closure of a number of Japanese businesses and factories as residents railed against anything representative of Japan or its people . Interactive : Disputed islands : Who claims what ? While Taiwan , which Beijing regards as a breakaway province , has long been a claimant in the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute , the self-governing island has seldom rigorously advanced its claims because of an unwillingness to risk its good relationship with Japan , said Alan Dupont , a strategic analyst at the University of New South Wales in Sydney . He said Taiwan 's decision to become more assertive was a response to recent action taken by China and Japan , as well as concerns over access to fishing and marine resources . `` Under the Law of the Sea , you have to demonstrate an ongoing interest in the islands over a period of time . It rewards countries that assert their claims , '' he said . China says its claim to the islands goes back hundreds of years . Japan says it saw no trace of Chinese control of the islands in an 1885 survey , so formally recognized them as Japanese sovereign territory in 1895 . Japan then sold the islands in 1932 to descendants of the original settlers . The Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 only served to cloud the issue further . The islands were administered by the U.S. occupation force after the war . But in 1972 , Washington returned them to Japan as part of its withdrawal from Okinawa . Beijing and Taipei both claim they inherit China 's historic sovereignty over the island . Taiwan is governed by the nationalist Kuomintang party that fled to Taiwan after losing to China 's communists in 1949 . `` The islands get subsumed in the long-running dialogue about reunification , '' said Dupont . `` It is one situation where strategic objectives are in sync . '' Dupont also said Taiwan 's protest would be an unwanted complication for the U.S. as it tries to strengthen its relationships in Asia to counter China 's rising power . `` It has two of its allies involved in disputes not only with China but also with each other over the same rock . '' Dangerous Rocks : Can both sides back off peacefully ?
NEW : Taiwanese ships leave waters claimed by Japan after water cannons fired . Japan 's Coast Guard says it warned the vessels to leave its territorial waters . Ten Chinese vessels in the area , Coast Guard claims . Taiwan , China and Japan all claim ownership of island chain .