Japan’s Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe via video conference on Monday, conveying Japan’s opposition to unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea by coercion. Kishi voiced concerns about the situation in the East China Sea, particularly the Senkaku Islands where China has been making repeated intrusions, urging China to “self-restraint,” according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. The Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea have mostly been administered by Japan since 1895, but Beijing began asserting its rights over the islands in the 1970s. In China, the islands are called the Diaoyu Islands. Japan has strongly protested repeated intrusions by Chinese vessels into the seas for decades. On Nov. 19, four Chinese ships reportedly entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands, the 37th case of Chinese patrol vessels entered into the territorial waters of Japan this year. Wei …