Japan is strongly alarmed by recent airspace breaches by China and Russia and other military activities by them around the country, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said Tuesday.
Kihara's remarks came a day after a Russian military patrol plane flew over waters in the Sea of Japan north of Hokkaido three times, prompting an Air Self-Defense Force fighter jet to fire a signal flare for the first time ever, according to the Defense Ministry.
In late August, Japan also confirmed for the first time that a Chinese military spy plane violated Japanese airspace over waters in the East China Sea off islands in Nagasaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan.
"We have a strong sense of crisis over those kinds of cases that have occurred successively in such a short period in waters and airspace surrounding our nation," Kihara told a press conference in Tokyo.
Kihara also noted that a total of eight Chinese and Russian naval vessels jointly sailed through the Soya Strait between Hokkaido and Sakhalin while passing from the Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk from Sunday to Monday.
Describing the signal flare use against the Russian plane as an "appropriate decision," Kihara said Japan will continue to monitor Chinese and Russian military activities "with strong interest" and make "necessary responses" to them.
Japan, along with its close security ally the United States, has been more vigilant against China and Russia's strengthening military cooperation in recent years, especially since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
© KYODO
17 Comments
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Michael Machida
And some say America is not to be involved. OK... Let's see how that goes.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Was the Russian jet over an indisputed Japanese island or not?
Peter Neil
as japan should be. japan is a sacrificial pawn for geopolitical schoolyard bullies to taunt.
deanzaZZR
Japan freaked out by the same sort of activities that the US (and now apparently Japan and likely Australia) have directed towards China for decades.
Deal with it.
Haaa Nemui
Flares, lasers, and unprofessional maneuvers by local pilots it shall be then.
JboneInTheZone
I see we’re making progress. You’re no longer denying China’s wrong-doings in the pacific but are now justifying them. I’m glad you’re slowly moving forward
deanzaZZR
If you believe half of the things that come out of the Pentagon (or Japan's equivalent) I have a bridge to sell you. See John Kirby daily reality distortion field pressers.
OssanAmerica
And well they should be. We are also concerned with their antics off Alaska recently.
JboneInTheZone
The amount of irony of this coming from someone who parrots CCP talking points is astounding
What’s gone wrong?
Next time use missiles.
isabelle
Typical CCP false equivalence fallacy. The differences are:
1) The free world doesn't violate China's airspace or maritime space: it operates in internationally-accepted areas. If there is a navigation mistake, it is acknowledged and rectified (and, in the case of Japan the other day, the commander removed).
(You'll probably point to things like the Hainan Island incident, but that was a long time ago: it certainly wouldn't be the case now.)
2) China cries and stomps its feet because we enter what it says is its territory (Taiwan, South China Sea etc.). But there is absolutely no basis in international law for the CCP's claims, so we will continue to do so.
3) China/Russia do illegally enter others' airspace and waters, constantly breaking international law.
N. Knight
Russia do this with ships and aircraft in the UK with alarming regularity. It likes to flex it's muscles with various countries. China does too.
It's what happens when powerful countries are run by lunatic dictators.
JJE
Contiguous waters - which means international waters, which means freedom of navigation.
TokyoLiving
That is the problem, good old US is in the region intervening in matters that do not concern it since the end of the Second World War. And now that they are desperate because their decadent hegemony is disappearing, they want to intervene much more to the point of creating a war, which is the way to do their things and not lose hegemony. If they weren't intervening in the rest of the world there would be no war and the world would be a better place..
isabelle
Treaty allies concern the US. Securing world trade routes concerns the US.
China's constant law-breaking and aggression concerns the US as it directly impacts these two areas, plus many more that concern not only the US but the rest of the world.
The US is acting lawfully.
It is not stealing territory, building and militarizing illegal islands, or ramming other countries' ships in their own waters. That would be China.
Falco1
A smart statement to keep their rearming and militarizing agenda working with a fair casus belli.
Well played by these far right ultra-conservative oyaji in power,and the media still believe them.
Some dude
" A leaked internal memo from the Japanese ministry of defence was discovered, repeatedly reminding staff to not use passwords involving the words kawaii, oishii, buchoraburabu, kitty-chan, or AKB"