Chinese reconnaissance plane violates Japan airspace; Tokyo lodges strong protest

Japan’s government protested to Beijing that a Chinese reconnaissance plane violated its airspace on Monday and forced it to scramble fighter jets, officials said.

A Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance plane circled above Danjo Island off the southwestern coast of Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu for two minutes, the Joint Staff of the Japanese Self Defence Force said, adding that officials were analysing the latest Chinese military activity.

The Joint Staff said Japan scrambled fighter jets that warned the Chinese plane to exit the airspace.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano summoned acting Chinese Ambassador Shi Yong to strongly protest the airspace violation. Okano also demanded that China take preventive steps to avoid such incidents.

According to Japan’s military, it scrambled jets nearly 669 times between April 2023 and March 2024, about 70 per cent of the time against Chinese military aircraft, though that did not include airspace violations.

Japanese defence 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 defences of southwestern Japan, including remote islands that are considered key to Japan’s defence strategy in the region.