Japanese jets intercepted Russian planes firing flares as a warning, Tokyo has said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi held an emergency press conference earlier today on the clash. He said the Russian planes violated Japanese airspace north of Rebun Island in Hokkaido three times between 1pm and 3pm local time today.
He called the incident “deeply regrettable” and said Japan had lodged a strong protest.
The Japan Air Self-Defense Force deployed fighter jets issued a warning using flares.
Relations between Russia and Japan have been frosty since the war in Ukraine was launched by Vladimir Putin.
Sanctions have seen car exports from Japan to Russia fall away by 45 percent, while coal imports in the opposite direction have declined by 67 percent, according to Responsible Statecraft.
In February 2024, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country remains “remains fully committed” to negotiating sovereignty over disputed islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded on X: “We don’t give a damn about the ‘feelings of the Japanese’ concerning the so-called ‘Northern territories.”
He added: “They’re not ‘disputed territories,’ but Russia.”
Today’s incursion into Japanese airspace is not the first time Russian airmen have violated the airspace of a democratic state.
In June this year, Swedish fighters intercepted a Russian military aircraft that had entered its airspace over the Baltic island of Gotland.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom called the violation “unacceptable”.
A few months later in September, a Russian drone entered the airspace of Romania – another NATO member.
The drone reportedly was deployed as part of an attack from Kremlin on Ukraine.
Hours earlier a Russian drone reportedly fell in Latvia, near the town of Rezekne.
Latvia’s Defence Minister Andris Spruds said it is thought the drone had come from its neighbour, Belarus – one of Putin’s few allies in the region.
