A Chinese military aircraft was confirmed for the first time to have violated Japanese territorial airspace on Monday morning, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said, with Japan strongly protesting the move.
The Defense Ministry said one of the Chinese military’s Y-9 intelligence-gathering planes had briefly entered Japanese territory near the Danjo Islands off Nagasaki Prefecture from around 11:29 a.m. to 11:31 a.m., prompting the Air Self-Defense Force to scramble fighter jets in response.
It said steps such as “issuing warnings” to the aircraft were taken. Broadcaster NHK reported that no weapons, such as flare guns, were used as an alert.
The defense ministry released a photograph of what it said was the plane.
Deputy foreign minister Masataka Okano summoned China’s acting ambassador late on Monday and “lodged firm protest,” as well as calling for measures against a recurrence, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Chinese diplomat said in response that the matter would be reported to Beijing, according to the ministry. There was no immediate official comment from Beijing.
According to Japan’s military, it scrambled jets nearly 669 times between April 2023 and March 2024, about 70% of the time against Chinese military aircraft, though that did not include airspace violations.
Last month, two Russian Tu-95s and two Chinese H-6s entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, NORAD said. The bombers were intercepted by U.S. F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, along with Canadian CF-18s and other support aircraft, a U.S. defense official confirmed to CBS News.
Japanese defense officials are increasingly concerned about growing military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian air forces, and China’s increasingly assertive activity around Japanese waters and airspace. It led Tokyo to significantly reinforce defenses of southwestern Japan, including remote islands that are considered key to Japan’s defense strategy in the region.
