In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo taken by Japan Air Self-Defense Force and released by the Joint Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan, Russian fighter jet SU-27 flies over the sea off the Japanese island of Hokkaido when the Defense Ministry said two SU-27 jets, including the one shown in this photo, briefly intruded into Japanese airspace in the afternoon off the coast of Rishiri island on Hokkaido’s west coast, prompting Japans air force to scramble jets. Japan’s government said Wednesday, April 15, 2015 that the number of scrambles by the country’s warplanes has surged in recent years to levels nearly matching the Cold War era amid growing activity by China and Russia in the region. AP
TOKYO, Japan—Tokyo has lodged a protest with Moscow after a foreign aircraft—believed to be Russian—briefly violated its airspace, prompting Tokyo to scramble four fighter jets, government officials said Wednesday.
The foreign ministry made the protest shortly after the plane entered Japanese airspace off the coast of the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, near a disputed island chain, on Tuesday afternoon.
“We made the protest through the Russian embassy in Tokyo,” a foreign ministry official told AFP.
“The Russian side did not confirm the case, only saying they will check.”
The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force scrambled four jets to head off the intruder, which it believed was Russian after analyzing its course, a defense ministry official said.
If confirmed, this would be the first time Russian planes have entered Japanese airspace since August 2013, when two Tu-95 Russian strategic bombers were intercepted off the southwestern Okinoshima Island, the ministry said.
Sixteen seconds after entering Japanese airspace, the plane left toward the Kuril island chain, claimed by Tokyo but controlled by Russia, the ministry added.
Soviet troops seized the islands, known as the Northern territory in Japan, just after Japan surrendered in World War II.
The seven-decade-old dispute has hampered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal post-war peace treaty.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is considering visiting Moscow next week to discuss a possible visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tokyo later this year, the daily Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported.
Kishida’s planned visit to Moscow was rescheduled in August after Tokyo hit out at Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to one of the disputed islands.
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