Japan Reports Fewer Approaches by Chinese Military Aircraft

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) scrambled its fighter aircraft a total of 462 times between April and December 2022 in response to Chinese military aircraft approaching the country’s airspace. That marked a 19 percent decrease compared with the same period in 2021.

In a statement issued on January 20, the Joint Staff Office (JSO) of the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that there were 109 fewer scrambles in response to Chinese aircraft in the first nine months of the 2022-23 fiscal year than during the April-December period of the previous year.

But the JSO said the latest figure is still at an average level, based on data complied since 2013, when the number of scrambles for a fiscal year began to stay consistently high.

In total the JASDF scrambled its fighters 612 times over the nine-month period in 2022, in response to foreign aircraft approaching the country’s airspace. That was down from 785 times during the same period in 2021.

In addition to incidents involving Chinese aircraft, Japanese fighters responded 133 times to movements by Russian military aircraft, down from 199 times during the same period in 2021 and the lowest since 2013. The remaining 17 incidents involved aircraft from other countries.

The incidents in the latest report mostly involved the JASDF’s Southwestern Composite Air Division (414 scrambles), which oversees an area that includes the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. The islands are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. There were also scrambles by Japan’s Western Air Defense Force (91), Central Air Defense Force (21), and Northern Air Defense Force (86).

The MoD emphasized one particular incident on November 30, when the JASDF intercepted a joint flight made by two Chinese Xian H-6 strategic bombers and two Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers that overflew near the Japanese archipelago. It was the second joint flight made by China’s H-6 bombers and Russia’s Tu-95 bombers near Japanese airspace in the current fiscal year, following a similar incident that happened on May 24. The May flight was an apparent bid to warn against the Quad summit held the same day, involving the leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.

In another notable incident, on August 4 when the Chinese military fired ballistic missiles around Taiwan in a response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island, two Chinese unmanned aircraft – one BZK-005 medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAV and one TB-001 MALE UAV – flew over the Miyako Strait, which is located between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island. Miyako Island, which is less than 400 kilometers to the east of Taiwan, is part of Okinawa prefecture.

On November 14, Japanese fighter jets also scrambled to intercept three Chinese aircraft, one BZK-005 drone, one Y-9 intelligence-gathering aircraft, and one Y-9 patrol aircraft that flew over the Miyako Strait.

None of the aircraft violated Japanese airspace during that period.

While the number of aerial intercepts dropped in the latest reporting period, Japan also reported a record number of Chinese ship sightings near the contested Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands during 2022. According to figures released by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) early January 2023, Chinese government ships had been spotted in the contiguous zone of the islands on a total of 336 days during last year, up from 332 days in 2021 and the highest number since the nationalization of the Senkaku Islands in 2012.

Japan is growing increasingly wary of Chinese military activities, especially those that take place near Taiwan and in areas claimed by Tokyo as part of its territory.

Most recently, Japan closely monitored the activities of a Chinese carrier group led by the Kuznetsov-class carrier Liaoning, as it passed between the Miyako Strait and the Western Pacific from December 2022 to early January 2023. In the 15 days from December 17 to 31 last year, the Liaoning hosted about 320 takeoff and landing activities involving fighter jets and helicopters, according to the Japanese MoD.

The Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) J-15 “Flying Shark” naval fighters, China’s first carrier-based fighters, carried out landings and takeoffs on the Liaoning, the MoD said.

These activities are consistent with China’s long-time ambition to operate more frequently in areas beyond the so-called First Island Chain, which consists of a group of islands including Taiwan, Okinawa, and the Philippines. Beijing also aims to increase its presence even beyond the Second Island Chain, which stretches from Japan’s Izu Islands to Guam and Papua New Guinea.