TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan scrambled fighter jets against aircraft approaching its airspace a record 883 times over the nine months through December, with 73 percent of the incidents involving Chinese aircraft, the Defense Ministry said Friday.
The overall number of incidents was up 316 or 36 percent from the same period the previous year.
If the trend continues, the number of incidents for the entire fiscal year through March is likely to top 1,000 -- exceeding the current record of 944 set in fiscal 1984 during the Cold War, an official at the ministry's Joint Staff Office said.
While no aircraft violated Japanese airspace during the nine-month period, the data indicates growing tension over Chinese military activities.
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