Japan lodged a protest with Russia over violation of its airspace

A Russian military aircraft violated Japanese airspace three times on Monday, September 23, near Rebun Island, located near Hokkaido, the Japanese government reported. As official Tokyo explained, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces sent aircraft to the scene for emergency response and fired flares, Voice of America reports.

This is the first time that Japan Self-Defense Force aircraft fired flares as part of “actions to counter airspace violations,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

Before firing flares in what was the third violation of Japanese airspace today, pilots of the scrambled Japanese F15 and F35 fighter jets warned the Russian military by radio, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters. He also stressed that Japan had sent Moscow an “extremely serious protest” over the incident.

“Today, we received confirmation that a Russian Il-38 patrol plane violated our airspace three times over our territorial waters north of Rebun Island (Hokkaido Prefecture),” Kihara said. – The violation of airspace is extremely regrettable, and today we have sent an extremely serious protest through diplomatic channels to the Russian government and urged it to prevent a recurrence (of such incidents).”

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Japan's Defense Minister noted that this is the “first publicly announced intrusion of a Russian aircraft into the country's airspace since June 2019,” when a Tu-95 bomber violated Japanese airspace south of Okinawa and in the Izu Islands area south of Tokyo.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said that “it will refrain from providing any final information about the intentions and goals of this action,” accusing the Russian military of “active actions near Japan since the invasion of Ukraine.”.

The publication recalls that Japan supported the West's position on Ukraine, providing Kyiv with financial and material support and imposing sanctions against a number of individuals and organizations in the Russian Federation.

According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, in 2023, Japan's airspace was violated by an aircraft believed to belong to russia. However, this information has not been confirmed. In September 2024, Japan scrambled fighter jets when Russian Tu-142 aircraft circled the Japanese islands. They did not violate the country's airspace, but flew over an area that is the subject of a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, Tokyo stated.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga