Japan says Russia violated airspace

A Russian strategic bomber briefly entered Japanese airspace over the Pacific south of Tokyo yesterday, prompting 22 Japanese military aircraft to scramble, officials said.

Russia denied the incursion, but the Japanese foreign ministry said it lodged a strong protest with the Russian embassy in Tokyo.

"We have asked the Russian government to make a thorough investigation into the matter," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

The Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-95 bomber flew over the rocky isle of Sofugan, some 650km south of Tokyo, for about three minutes from 7:30:36, the defense ministry said.

The air force scrambled 22 planes, including F-15 fighters and an E-767 airborne early warning and control aircraft, a defense ministry statement said.

They gave "a notice, then a warning and another a notice and a warning," the statement said. "There was no response."

The Russian bomber then flew back north toward the Russian island of Sakhalin, it said.

Russia denied the incursion.

"Russian air force planes carried out their mission according to plan. Japanese military airspace was not breached," Alexander Drobyshevsky, a spokesman for the air force, told ITAR-TASS.

The bomber flights "were carried out in strict accordance with international rules on flying over neutral waters, without violating the border between the two countries," Drobyshevsky said.

Japan said it was the first Russian violation of its airspace since January 2006.

Russia and Japan have had uneasy ties. Last month, Japan lodged a protest with the Russian embassy after saying Russian embassy officials wined, dined and gave cash to a Japanese intelligence officer who passed on research information.