Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese military aircraft “violated” its airspace in a further escalation of regional tensions, with local media reporting it as the first such move by a Chinese military plane.
The incursion into Japanese airspace was made by a Y-9 surveillance aircraft at 11.29am on Monday and lasted two minutes.
Japan’s defence ministry said the aircraft “violated the territorial airspace off the Danjo islands in Nagasaki prefecture”, prompting Japan to deploy “fighter jets on an emergency basis”.
It said steps such as “issuing warnings” to the aircraft were taken. Public broadcaster NHK reported that no weapons, such as flare guns, were used as an alert.
The defence ministry released a photograph of what it said was the plane.
Deputy foreign minister Masataka Okano summoned China’s acting ambassador late on Monday to lodge a “firm protest”, and called 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, the ministry said. There was no immediate official comment from Beijing.
Two previous incursions were by non-military aircraft, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. A propeller-powered plane and a small drone went into airspace near the disputed Senkaku islands in 2012 and 2017.
Chinese vessels regularly enter waters near the Senkakus, with Japan scrambling self-defence force jets in response. The territories were in the news again recently after the Japanese coastguard rescued a Mexican man who had become stranded on one of the islands after leaving the island of Yonaguni in a canoe in an apparent attempt to cross to Taiwan, 100km away.
Yee Kuang Heng, a professor at the University of Tokyo, said the Y-9 in Monday’s incident “was likely probing Japan’s air defence network, collecting electronic intel such as Japan’s radar signals and coverage”.
China’s growing economic and military clout in the Asia-Pacific region and its assertiveness in territorial disputes – in particular with Taiwan – has alarmed the United States and its allies.
Japan, staunchly pacifist for decades, has ramped up defence spending with US encouragement, moving to acquire “counter-strike” capabilities and easing rules on arms exports.
Tokyo is also providing funding and equipment such as patrol vessels to countries across the region and agreed in July on a deal with the Philippines allowing troop deployments on each other’s soil.
Japan and South Korea have also moved to bury historical tensions. Tokyo is part of the Quad alliance with the US, Australia and India, a grouping seen as a bulwark against Beijing.
Japanese and Chinese vessels have been involved in tense incidents in disputed areas, in particular the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea known by Beijing as the Diaoyus.
The remote chain has fuelled diplomatic tensions and been the scene of confrontations between Japanese coastguard vessels and Chinese fishing boats.
Tokyo has reported the presence of Chinese coastguard vessels, a naval ship and even a nuclear-powered submarine, in the area.
The Danjo Islands, the site of the latest incident, are a group of small islets also located in the East China Sea off Japan’s southern Nagasaki region.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan is due to visit Beijing for three days from Tuesday and will meet China’s foreign minister Wang Yi in a bid to manage bilateral tensions ahead of US elections in November.