SDF Held Training Near Senkakus while Chinese Carriers were Deployed in Pacific; Exercise was Intended to Demonstrate Japan Could Counter China’s Navy

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:45 JST, August 14, 2025

The Self-Defense Forces conducted attack training against aircraft carriers in June in the waters near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, at around the same time as two Chinese Navy carriers were deployed to the Pacific Ocean, it has been learned.

The exercises were meant to demonstrate that Japan is prepared to counter the Chinese Navy, which is exerting increasing military pressure in the waters near Japan and Taiwan, according to several government sources.

The June training was conducted in the waters north of the Senkakus and included the participation of multiple F-2 fighter jets from the Air Self-Defense Force. The area had been passed through by the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning in late May, and the sources report that the ship’s path took it through Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). These waters are apparently not a standard location for SDF training.

During the exercises, the SDF checked procedures for attacking aircraft carriers using air-to-ship missiles mounted on the F-2s, the sources said.

While F-2s possess high anti-ship attack capabilities, they have limited capacity for stealth. Deploying these jets instead of the most cutting-edge models shows that the exercises were apparently meant to be visible to China.

“Given when and where it was conducted and what it involved, this training was clearly intended to make sure China gets the message that it was conducted as a countermeasure [against them],” a government source said.

The Liaoning traveled southward through the waters near the Senkakus in late May to reach the Pacific Ocean. In early June, it reached Japan’s EEZ off Minami-Torishima Island. Around that time, the other carrier, the Shandong, traveled eastward in waters south of Taiwan to reach the Pacific, sailing within the Japanese EEZ off Okinotorishima Island.

Japanese government analysis concluded that the two Chinese aircraft carriers were conducting exercises in which one of them played the role of a U.S. counterpart. It is believed that these exercises were intended to enhance the Chinese military’s ability to intercept any U.S. carrier that might be deployed to intervene in the event of a contingency around Taiwan or a military invasion of the Senkakus by China.

The Chinese military is trying to establish a so-called anti-access/area denial strategy, which would be aimed at obstructing U.S. forces launched from their bases in Hawaii and Guam from approaching Taiwan in a bid to help the island.

It was the first time two Chinese Navy aircraft carriers have been deployed in the Pacific Ocean at the same time. During the approximately one-month period beginning in late May when the Liaoning and Shandong were deployed in the area, fighter jets and helicopters based on the two vessels conducted a total of about 1,120 takeoffs and landings.

China has been escalating its military provocations, such as on June 7 and 8 when a Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to an MSDF P-3C patrol aircraft after taking off from the Shandong while sailing in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Defense Ministry.