Japan Believes Chinese Spy Balloons Violated Its Airspace, Demands Answers

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) bring down the Japanese national flag in the early evening, at the military Miyako camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, on April 20, 2022. (Issei Kato/Reuters)

Japan’s defense ministry believes that Chinese spy balloons have violated the nation’s airspace at least three times in recent years.

Numerous balloon-like objects have been reported around the world following the United States’ shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4.

Japan is among them and “strongly suspects” Chinese surveillance balloons entered Japanese territory at least three times between 2019 and 2021, Japan’s defense ministry said in a Feb. 14 statement.

The Pacific nation has been probing past records for signs of incursions from China’s spy balloon program since the U.S. shootdown occurred.

Japanese Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that such violations of its airspace are unacceptable and that Japan is strongly demanding that China’s communist regime verify the facts of the situation and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Accordingly, Japan’s defense ministry is considering changes to its policies that will allow it to more readily shoot down similar airships that pose a hazard to civil air traffic in the future.

Japanese authorities first announced that they were investigating past aerial incidents on Feb. 8, the same day that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States was sharing intelligence with dozens of nations after it discovered that China’s spy balloon program had targeted at least 40 nations.

“We’ve already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies,” Blinken said at the time.

“We’re doing so because the United States is not the only target of the balloon program, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Feb. 13 that the spy balloon program was connected to China’s military and had targeted the United States’ “closest allies and partners,” a designation that typically includes Japan.

Speaking during a joint press briefing on Feb.13, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori appeared to acknowledge that the United States and Japan were sharing intelligence on the issue.

“We will keep in touch and we look forward to receiving more information about the balloon issues, and we will further communicate in order to have a more profound insight on this issue,” Mori said.

Chinese communist authorities have refused to acknowledge the spy balloons’ purpose and claim that the object shot down in U.S. airspace was a civilian weather balloon, despite the fact that U.S. authorities have recovered significant amounts of sensitive electronics from the wreckage.

The regime has threatened it will take “countermeasures against relevant U.S. entities.”

Reuters contributed to this report.