Japanese fighter jets scrambled 13 times last year in response to Chinese military aircraft approaching their airspace, up from only twice in 2003, amid growing tension between the two Asian neighbors over territorial disputes and other issues.
Several of the Chinese aircraft were believed to be reconnaissance planes, said a Defense Agency spokeswoman on condition of anonymity. All turned away and no major confrontations were reported. She declined to provide further details on the approaching planes.
The spokeswoman, however, said Tokyo will continue to monitor possible violations of its air space and defend its sovereign rights over disputed islands, including the Senkaku, a group of islets in the East China Sea claimed both by Japan and China.
An incursion of a Chinese submarine into Japanese waters last year caused a military alert.
Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing have escalated recently over Japanese textbooks that critics say gloss over atrocities the country's military committed in World War II, territorial disputes and visits by Japan's prime minister to a shrine honoring its war dead. The tension has led to several violent anti-Japanese rallies in China.
Japan scrambled its planes 141 times in response to approaching foreign military aircraft last year, slightly down from 158 times the year earlier, the spokeswoman said.
The scramblings were mostly triggered by approaching Russian military jets -- 118 times -- but the number was down on an average of 200 times in the past few years, she said. It was also considerably lower than a record scramblings of 994 in 1984.
Japan and Russia also disagree over the sovereignty of a chain of islands, called Northern Territory in Japan and Kurils in Russia, after Moscow took them over in the closing days of World War II. The issue has prevented them from signing a peace treaty.
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