Koizumi Raps China’s Info Prior to Radar Incident as Insufficient

Tokyo, Dec. 10 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Wednesday that although China notified Japan that it would begin military flight training, it failed to provide “sufficient information” to avoid a potential danger. The minister made the comment at an extraordinary press conference, after a Chinese media outlet on Tuesday released what it claimed were audio data showing the country’s navy notifying Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force on Saturday of the planned start of training in advance. According to Japan’s Defense Ministry, a J-15 fighter jet from the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning intermittently directed its radar at Japanese Air SDF F-15 fighters engaging in anti-airspace violation activities over the high seas southeast of the main island of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa on Saturday. Bringing up the Chinese media report, Koizumi said, “An MSDF destroyer was informed by a Chinese warship that (the Chinese side) would begin flight training.” But he said that the Chinese side failed to provide notice to airmen, or NOTAM, information on the time as well as the latitude and longitude of the location of the training, and to issue a navigation warning. “It’s only natural for the Self-Defense Forces to take appropriate measures against airspace violation regardless of whether there is prior notification about a drill,” Koizumi said. The Chinese media outlet reported that a Chinese warplane detected radar from an ASDF plane. Koizumi denied this, saying, “We didn’t use radar.” At a separate press conference Wednesday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said, “The real issue lies in the fact that the Chinese side used radar (for Japanese fighter jets) intermittently over a period of some 30 minutes.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]