TOKYO, Sept 23, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Japan lodged a "very serious protest" with 
Moscow after a Russian patrol plane entered its airspace three times, the 
defence minister said Monday, calling it the first confirmed incursion since 
2019.

The military responded by scrambling fighter jets and issuing radio and flare 
warnings, Minoru Kihara told reporters.

"We confirmed today that a Russian Il-38 patrol aircraft has violated our 
airspace over our territorial waters north of Rebun Island, Hokkaido, on 
three occasions," he said.

"The airspace violation is extremely regrettable and today we lodged a very 
serious protest with the Russian government via diplomatic channels and 
strongly urged them to prevent a recurrence."

Japan has supported the Western position on Ukraine, providing Kyiv with 
financial and material support and sanctioning Russian individuals and 
organisations after Moscow's invasion of its neighbour.

Kihara said it was "the first publicly announced airspace incursion by a 
Russian aircraft since June 2019", when a Tu-95 bomber entered Japanese 
airspace in southern Okinawa and around the Izu Islands south of Tokyo.

In 2023, an aircraft believed but not confirmed to be Russian entered 
Japanese airspace, according to the defence ministry.

Top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi also said on Monday that "we will 
refrain from giving any definitive information on the intent and purpose of 
this action, but the Russian military has been active in the vicinity of our 
country since the invasion of Ukraine".

Japan also scrambled fighter jets this month when Russian aircraft flew 
around the archipelago for the first time since 2019.

The Tu-142 planes did not enter Japanese airspace but flew over an area 
subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, Tokyo said.

Russian and Chinese warships recently held joint drills in the Sea of Japan, 
part of a major naval exercise that President Vladimir Putin said was the 
largest of its kind for three decades.

Japan scrambled fighter jets in August after the first confirmed incursion by 
a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace, with Tokyo calling it a 
"serious violation" of its sovereignty.

Then last week, a Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese 
islands near Taiwan for the first time. Japan called that incident "totally 
unacceptable from the perspective of the security environment of Japan and 
the region".

China said the passage complied with international law.