As Japan publicly criticized China for a Chinese military fighter jet illuminating a Japan Self-Defense Forces fighter with radar targeting, reports said for the first time that takeoffs and landings by carrier-based aircraft from a Chinese aircraft carrier were confirmed between islands east of Okinawa Prefecture.
On the 8th, Japan's NHK reported, citing the Ministry of Defense, that takeoffs and landings by Chinese military carrier-based fighters were confirmed in waters between the Daito Islands, which include Okinawa Island and Minami-Daito, and that this was the first such case.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense said that on the 5th of last month, a fleet led by the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed from the East China Sea through waters between southwest of Okinawa and Miyakojima into the Pacific, then passed between east of Okinawa and Minami-Daito and advanced to waters about 190 kilometers east of Kikaijima in Kagoshima Prefecture on the 7th.
According to the Liaoning's sailing route released by the Ministry of Defense, it moved as if encircling Okinawa Island in a "ㄷ" shape, and on the 6th and 7th, fighters and helicopters carried out about 50 takeoffs and landings each from the Liaoning. However, no incursions into Japanese airspace by Chinese fighters or helicopters have been identified so far.
The Ministry of Defense said it is conducting vigilance and surveillance activities using the escort ship Deruzuki and is responding by scrambling Self-Defense Forces fighters in response to the carrier-based aircraft takeoffs and landings.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense announced on the afternoon of the 6th that a Chinese military J-15 carrier-based aircraft illuminated a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter with radar twice. China countered that "Japan interfered with China's pre-notified training."