Airspace border tensions soar / ASDF scrambled 386 times to ward off foreign aircraft in FY10

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The number of Air Self-Defense Force sorties to intercept foreign aircraft flying near Japanese airspace jumped to 386 last fiscal year, up 29 percent from fiscal 2009, according to the Defense Ministry.

In the past two decades, the 2010 figure was the second-largest after the 488 sorties in fiscal 1991.

ASDF jets were scrambled to ward off planes from China 96 times, an increase of about 2.5 times from the previous fiscal year, and Russian aircraft on 264 occasions, an increase of 30 percent.

According to the ministry's Joint Staff Office, Russian aircraft accounted for 68 percent of the total number and Chinese planes 25 percent. Taiwan jets comprised 2 percent, or seven instances, while planes of other nationalities together made up 5 percent, or 19 incidents.

Last fiscal year, there were no instances of North Korean aircraft approaching Japanese airspace, although the ASDF scrambled on eight occasions against that country's jets in fiscal 2009.

The ministry said no foreign aircraft actually violated Japanese airspace in fiscal 2010.

However, Chinese military planes flew past the median line between Japan and China and came close to Japanese airspace over the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture for the first time on March 2. ASDF jets were scrambled after the Chinese aircraft--two Y-8 surveillance planes--were spotted flying over the East China Sea toward the Nansei Islands and approaching a point about 50 kilometers from Japanese airspace.

Meanwhile, two Russian aircraft--Sukhoi-27 and AN-12 fighters--came close to Japanese territory on March 21.

During the period after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake through March 31, Russian aircraft were spotted 14 times and Chinese jets four times. This is little different from before the disaster, observers said.

The number of ASDF intercepts peaked in fiscal 1984 at 944, after which the figures declined. But the number rose again for two consecutive years in fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2010.

The increase in sorties to ward off foreign aircraft approaching the nation's airspace appears to correlate with the Democratic Party of Japan's 2009 ascent to power and subsequent tensions in the Japan-U.S. defense relationship.

A Defense Ministry senior official said, "[Foreign countries] might have been testing Japan's defense capability as they regarded Japan-U.S. relations as weakened."