Defying China's announcement it was creating an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, aircraft of the Self-Defense Forces and Japan Coast Guard have continued flying into the zone without informing Beijing ahead of time, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday.
Suga didn't elaborate, but he did say Japan detected no reaction from China while the operations were under way.
"Japan has conducted patrol activities by flexibly mobilizing P-3Cs (anti-submarine airplanes) and destroyers around Japan, including the East China Sea. We have continued our patrolling activities just as we have done before China set up its ADIZ" last week, Suga said.