A Russian aircraft violated Japanese airspace seven times Wednesday night off northern Hokkaido, government officials said Thursday.
Russia's border guard bureau in Sakhalin told the Japanese Consulate in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Thurday that one of its Antonov 72 transports was the intruder, the Foreign Ministry said.
The aircraft intruded between 7:07 p.m. and 7:33 p.m. some 30 km northwest of Wakkanai, a city on the northern tip of Hokkaido,Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.
Kuninori Matsuda, head of the Foreign Ministry's Russian Affairs Division, lodged a protest with the Russian Embassy in Tokyo late Wednesday, demanding a thorough investigation and action to prevent a recurrence, Abe said.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the border guards asked Wednesday night for Japan Coast Guard assistance, saying they were tracking a Russian freighter that violated Russian law. The plane apparently violated Japanese airspace while trying to track the ship, a ministry official said.
Six Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighters were scrambled from Hokkaido's Chitose air base when the aircraft entered Japan's airspace and the ASDF radioed warnings.