Tokyo expressed concern today over recent Chinese military and maritime activity near disputed islands that Japan controls, including the flight of a Chinese fighter jet near Japanese airspace.
Japan's Defence Ministry scrambled fighter jets yesterday to keep watch on a Chinese early warning plane flying over international waters between Japan's main Okinawa island and an outer island relatively close to the disputed area in the East China Sea.
Around the same time, Japan spotted four Chinese coast guard vessels near the disputed islands for the first time following Beijing's reorganisation of the service to boost its ability to enforce its maritime claims.
"It was an unusual action that we have never seen before. We'll keep monitoring with great interest," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said of the Chinese flight before leaving for Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, where he planned to discuss ways to cooperate and check China's maritime activity in the region.
"I would like to share an understanding that we need to observe a rule of law, not a rule by force."
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said late yesterday that the flight of the Chinese Y-8 early warning plane was "a sign of China's escalating maritime advance."
Japan is also considering introducing drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles like Global Hawk used by US military, and beefing up the role of self-defence troops in southwestern Japan to step up defence against China's increased activity around the disputed islands, Japanese media reported.
Those plans are expected to be included in an interim defence policy report that Japan's Defence Ministry is set to release tomorrow.
Japan's coast guard said the four Chinese craft were seen early yesterday just outside Japanese territorial waters around the tiny uninhabited islands called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan.
Chinese websites ran photos reportedly taken by the Japanese coast guard showing a ship painted in the service's new red, white and blue striped Chinese coast guard livery.
Along with its claims in the East China Sea, China has also frequently sparred with the Philippines and Vietnam over overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, another area to which the new coast guard is being deployed.
