Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Japan will free a Chinese fishing captain, whose arrest touched off a diplomatic storm between Beijing and Tokyo, Japan's coast guard said Friday.
"We decided to suspend the charges in consideration of the Japan-China relationship," said the Japanese prosecutor in the case.
In China, the captain's wife, Chen Tingting, said she was thrilled.
"We are so happy, we are just really very happy to hear the news," she said.
But she did not know when he would return home to Jinjiang city, in the southern province of Fujian.
Japanese officials gave no time frame for freeing the captain, but it could take several days, because of logistics.
China will send a chartered flight to pickup the captain, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its website.
The captain was arrested on September 8 off the disputed Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, after his vessel crashed into two Japanese patrol boats. He is accused of obstructing Japanese public officers while they performed duties.
CNN
