Japan protests after a Chinese reconnaissance plane violated its airspace

Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan says a Chinese military aircraft briefly entered Japanese airspace, calling the incident an “absolutely unacceptable” territorial violation and safety threat. The Joint Staff of the Japanese Self Defense Force says a Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance plane circled Danjo Island off the southwestern coast of Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu for two minutes on Monday. The Foreign Ministry said Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano summoned the acting Chinese ambassador and demanded that China take steps to avoid such incidents. According to Japan’s military, it scrambled jets nearly 669 times between April 2023 and March 2024, about 70% of the time against Chinese military aircraft.