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| JASDF Mitsubishi F-2A (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Shannon Tiezzi
The Japan Air Self Defense Force scrambled its jets 117 times against Chinese planes in the third quarter of 2015.
The Japan Air Self Defense Force scrambled its jets 117 times against Chinese planes in the third quarter of 2015, up from 103 times in the same period last year, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced this week. That’s a 13.5 percent increase from the July-September period of 2014. Japan also logged a record high for scrambles against Chinese planes for the first half of the year, but the numbers are still far below the record high of 164 scrambles, set during the last quarter of 2014 (notably, before the current thaw in China-Japan ties set in).
Most of the Chinese aircraft in questions were fighter jets flying over the East China Sea,according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense. China and Japan both claim sovereignty over a group of islands in the East China Sea, known in Japan as the Senkakus and in China as the Diaoyus. China routinely sends Coast Guard vessels as well as aircraft to patrol the region as a means of asserting its claim; Japan just as routinely meets these incursions with its own assets.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry defended the patrols, saying that “the activities conducted by Chinese planes in relevant waters and airspace are justified and lawful.”
Unsurprisingly, that assessment isn’t shared in Japan. Akio Takahara, a professor at the Graduate School of Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo and an expert on China-Japan relations, told The Diplomat that the situation in the East China Sea is “abnormal.” China routinely sends government vessels to enter the territorial waters around the Senkakus, which is against international norms, he says: “As a responsible, big nation, they should not be behaving like this. This is something that a rogue state would do.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat