Japan and China are accusing each other of violating the airspace around the Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands that Beijing also claims.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that it has protested to Beijing after a Chinese helicopter that took off from one of China’s four coast guard boats had entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku island, violating the Japanese airspace around them for about 15 minutes on Saturday.
In response to the airspace intrusion, Japan’s Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets, the Defense Ministry said.
China routinely sends coast guard vessels and aircraft into waters and airspace surrounding the islands, which China calls the Diaoyu, to harass Japanese vessels in the area and force Japan to scramble jets in response.
The latest territorial flap comes as Japan and China were appearing to have warm ties as both countries seek to mitigate damages from the U.S. tariff war.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said it lodged a “very severe protest" through the Chinese embassy in Japan, claiming that China Coast Guard actions infringed Japan’s sovereignty and urging the Chinese government to ensure preventive measures.
China also said in a statement that it took a similar step and protested to Japan over a Japanese civilian aircraft violating its airspace around the islands, saying it was “strongly dissatisfied” about Japanese violation of China’s sovereignty.
Japanese officials are investigating a possible connection between the Chinese coast guard helicopter’s airspace intrusion and the small Japanese civilian aircraft flying in the area around the same time.
Saturday’s intrusion was the first by China since a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft violated the Japanese airspace off the southern prefecture of Nagasaki. Chinese aircraft have also violated the Japanese airspace around the Senkaku twice in the past.
Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
21 Comments
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itsonlyrocknroll
Engage the government of China, its violations with military force.
Chinese helicopter that took off from one of China’s four coast guard boats had entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku island, violating the Japanese airspace around them for about 15 minutes on Saturday.
Force President Trump to fully support, commit, unreservedly to….
The Security Treaty between Japan and the United States of America signed at the city of San Francisco on September 8, 1951….
TaiwanIsNotChina
Japan should just put some anti-aircraft systems and naval guns on those islands. China thinks it is winning countries over at this point anyways, so their ability to raise a stink is limited.
sakurasuki
Read again, that is east China Sea land, not east Japan Sea land.
itsonlyrocknroll
Sign a Treaty, all parties own it.,abide by agreed stipulation protocols,
Rivera
Here we go again people where are the ones who wanted this relationship to happen
I’ve told you many times
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
this is your OUTCOME
BigP
Sign a treaty? Ask Hong Kong how that went for them.
Hello Kitty 321
@TaiwanIsNotChina
But ownership of the islands is disputed, China might as well put anti-aircraft systems and naval guns on them. The first thing to do is to come to an agreement over ownership, not just unilaterally claim possession.
deanzaZZR
@itsonlyrocknroll 2 large rocks for Japan, 2 large rocks for China and move on.
Bonus points if your large rock has some goats.
WiseOneIn Kansai
China back to it's usual belligerent behavior!!
As usual, untrustworthy and unreliable to be a responsible member of the international community.
After a few months, China will switch faces again and will ask to have a closer working relationship. Aargh. . ., completely two-faced!!!
TaiwanIsNotChina
There was a proposal that no one drill for oil unilaterally but China went ahead without it.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They'd have to get past the Japanese Coast Guard ships to do that.
itsonlyrocknroll
The government of China, Russia, North Korea show nothing but contempt for peaceful co-regional existence, with the people of japan even the faintest whiff of democracy,
A murderous example is the slaughtering of its own people in 1989 protests, Tiananmen Square.
Appeasement is surrender.
Engage with hostile enemies.
That have clearly displyed brutal belligerent threatening enmity, to every effort the people of Japan pleas and pledges for peace.
starpunk
The CCP is just placing their fingers into the corners of their mouths again, stretching them out while sticking their tongues at Japan again. A bunch of screwball nuisances. Royal pains in the butt.
I saw that live on NBC-TV, before the foreign news blackout. I was in college, 23 years old. Soon enough, some Chinese exchange students put up a bulletin board in our student union building showing photos snuck from the massacre. Horrifying and gross to say the least. You can find them on search engines now. And sometimes somebody'd unfurl a 'Free Tibet' banner too.
Russia after the Cold War wasn't so bad off under Boris Yeltsin, but Putin's rise only made things worse there again.
itsonlyrocknroll
How can the people of Japan “hate” the people of China, that is absurd toxic ludicrous propaganda.
Japan is a shadow of its once militarist, Imperialist, WWII notion that expansionist extremism, through conquest, atrocities will bring/solve any ideological domination.
The Government of China is the present-day horror of a past, the global democratic community prayed, once and for all to witness the back of
Some dude
"Children in sandbox squabble over toys". Just with more potential repercussions. We really are a risible species.
OssanAmerica
Continuous childish harassment tactics by China.
This is all they can do because the United States has affirmed that any attempt by China to take the Senkakus by military force will invoke Article 5 of the US-JPN Mutial Defense Treaty.
Thse islands have been Japanese since 1895, were never taken by war from anyone, and were even marked as Japanse territory on Chinese (PRC) maps up to the late 1960s.
If China has a "claim" they can bring a claim at the the ICJ, which Japan as a signatory is compelled to answer. But China won't do that since they don't recognize international judgements on matters of their own sovereignty. So it's not even a dispute as far as Japan is concerned.
Pukey2
starpunk:
Yeltsin was a drunk who let the country slip away and saw its economy tank further. That's why the west loved him (and Gorbachov who let USA make promises about NATO not expanding without a written agreement).
OssanAmerika:
Since? What happened before 1895? And here we have someone who goes on and on about Tibet and Xinjiang.
This is most likely something blown up by the western press, no doubt because Japan is shifting away from USA and drifting back toward China because of the current fiasco created by their bosses in DC. A slow news day, so drum up more hatred to divide and conquer these nations. Kinda like how Australia and China inform each other of routine visits by their ships and yet somehow Australia was 'surprised' by Chinese ships near Australia a while back.
Sanjinosebleed
Japan needs to put a base on the island before China does!
Agent_Neo
It's because of these repeated acts of aggression that 90% of Japanese people clearly express their dislike for China.
Even Mao Zedong never said that the Senkaku Islands were Chinese territory.
And if it were possible, they could take China to an international court.
Japan has already notified the Chinese government many times that it would take action.
There are very few examples of Japanese people, who have a public facade and a private facade, expressing their feelings so clearly.
That's how much China is disliked, and it poses a military threat to the Japanese.
The decision to increase defense spending has been made out of necessity because of things like this lol.
And it's one of the reasons why the Chinese Communist Party is not trusted or relied upon by other countries.
GuruMick
A Chinese helicopter went into Japan air space for about 15 minutes.
Thats it.
Posters here want to go to war over this .
America has war bases surrounding China's entire coast line
Some perspective needed here my fellow posters
deanzaZZR
Much ado about nothing.
Following the logic of the UNCLOS ruling on the SCS these rocks are features, not islands. No territorial water or EEZ need apply.