Japanese Govt on High Alert after Chinese Aircraft Intrusion into Territorial Airspace near Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Pref.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, May 11, 2025

The government is on increased alert after a recent series of intrusions by Chinese aircraft into Japanese territorial airspace around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.

The intrusions have occurred alongside instances of Chinese ships entering Japan’s territorial waters, and if both continue, China may be able to strengthen its sovereignty claims over the islands. Such an outcome would increase the burden on the Self-Defense Forces and other Japanese authorities to respond.

On May 3, a Chinese helicopter entered Japan’s airspace for about 15 minutes near the Senkaku Islands after taking off from a China Coast Guard vessel.

Since 2012, Chinese aircraft have intruded into Japanese airspace four times, and three of those cases occurred around the Senkaku Islands.

In the latest case, the Chinese authorities announced that the intrusion was meant as a warning to a Japanese private plane that had approached the islands, and that the plane was instructed to leave.

“It was a new attempt to demonstrate through action China’s claim that [the Senkaku Islands] are its territory,” said a Japanese government source.

At a press conference on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the plane flew over the area during a sightseeing flight and that the government had told the operator to consider the safety of making such a flight. The remark suggests that the government had asked the operator to refrain from embarking on the flight.

The government’s task moving forward will likely be to consider how to control flights by private planes in the airspace around the islands to avoid giving China a pretext to intervene.

At a joint meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party’s foreign affairs divisions, among others, on Friday, many attendees demanded that the government prepare for further Chinese intrusions into Japanese airspace.

Former Defense Minister Minoru Kihara pointed out that the intrusions are part of China’s “salami slicing tactics” — a strategy in which a country aims to gradually achieve a larger goal through an accumulation of small-scale actions.

“We must seriously consider how to prevent that from happening,” Kihara said.

Chinese ships have repeatedly intruded into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands since the islands were nationalized in 2012, and the Japan Coast Guard has been forced to respond.

In the latest airspace intrusion, Air Self-Defense Force fighters were scrambled.

If such incidents become commonplace, the risk of a collision with a Chinese aircraft may increase.