Japan on Tuesday slammed an unprecedented breach of its airspace by a Chinese military plane the previous day, calling it a “totally unacceptable” violation of its sovereignty and safety.
“We are firmly determined to protect our land, sea and airspace and to stand up to say what we need to say,” Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a press conference.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a separate press conference that the Chinese military’s “operations around our nation are apparently expanding and intensifying” and that Japan will continue to monitor them “with strong interest.”
The Defense Ministry confirmed Monday that a Chinese military Y-9 spy plane flew over waters in the East China Sea off the Danjo Islands in the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki for about two minutes from 11:29 a.m. The Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets immediately after the intrusion.
Japan has declined to comment on China’s potential motive and purpose behind the incident, apparently for national security and diplomatic reasons.
Hayashi, the top government spokesman, said Japan has already lodged an “extremely serious protest” with China and strongly urged it to take steps to prevent any further such incidents.
The intrusion was the first by a Chinese military aircraft that Japan has confirmed. Nonmilitary Chinese aircraft have violated Japanese airspace twice in the past, in 2012 and 2017 around the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Japan scrambled fighter jets in both cases.
Ties between the two neighbors have been strained recently following the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean in August 2023, leading China to impose a blanket ban on Japanese seafood.
BY : The Time Union / KYODO
