Japan carried out a total of 704 fighter aircraft scrambles from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, an increase from 669 in the same period the year before. Japan saw scrambles against Russian aircraft significantly increase while scrambles against Chinese aircraft saw a small downturn, according to a Japan Joint Staff Office release on Thursday.
Japan releases its number of fighter scrambles on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis, along with the JSO issuing specific reports on scrambles involving Chinese and Russian aircraft that are deemed to be significant.
The JSO reported noted that since FY2013, the number of scrambles has remained at a level close to 700 and above for each fiscal year, showing that foreign, non-allied to Japan, military aircraft continue to be actively operating around Japan. Chinese aircraft made up the majority of scrambles, with 464 scrambles making around 66 percent of the overall total for FY2024 though this was a decrease of 15 from FY2023.
Russian aircraft meanwhile accounted for 237 scrambles making around 34 percent of the total and an increase of 63 from FY2023’s total of 174. Three scrambles, less than 1 percent of the overall total, were classed as others for FY2024, the report did not state what the others category was though likely these were scrambles on civilian aircraft
In terms of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) commands, the Northern Air Defense Command scrambled 152 times in FY2024, compared to 112 times in FY2023, the Central Air Defense Command scrambled 39 times compared to 46 in FY2023, the Western Air Defense Command scrambled 102 times compared to 110 in FY2023 while the Southwest Air Defense Command carried out the most scrambles with 411 in FY2024, an increase of ten from FY2023’s total of 401.
The Southwest Air Defense Command routinely records the highest number of scrambles due to its operational area being the main location of Chinese aerial activities around Japan along with also being the location where China and Russian conduct their joint bomber flights.
A map showing the flight paths of Russian and Chinese military aircraft around Japan was included with the release and showed that the majority of Chinese flights were carried out around Japan’s southwest islands with a high number either transiting the airspace between Miyako Island and Okinawa or the airspace between Japan’s Yonaguni Island and Taiwan with many of those flights in both instances subsequently flying off Taiwan’s east coast.
The majority of Russian flights took place over the Sea of Japan and parallel to the west coasts of the main islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. Other flights included north of Hokkaido, into the southwest regions of Japan, flights in the airspace between Okinawa and Miyako Island and a circumnavigation flight around Japan. Chinese flights off Taiwan’s east coast consisted of intelligence-gathering aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
The JSO’s summary of events in FY2024 stated that in August, a violation of Japan’s territorial airspace by a Chinese aircraft occurred and in September, a Russian aircraft violated Japan’s territorial airspace on three occasions in a single day and for the first time, Japanese fighter aircraft released a warning flare in that incident. The JSO also said in November, joint bomber flights between Russian and Chinese bombers over the Sea of Japan, East China Sea and Pacific Ocean occurred. The most recent period also saw flights by Russian bombers escorted by Russian fighters over the Sea of Japan and Russian maritime patrol aircraft carrying out a circumnavigation flight of Japan. The bulk of Chinese and Russian aircraft scrambles were intelligence gathering aircraft, according to the JSO,
The JSO also stated that FY2024 marked the first time that China’s WZ-10 Wing Loong 10 UAV and GJ-2 Wing Loong II UAV had been sighted operating around Japan along with the number of flights by Chinese UAVs almost tripling in number compared to the previous fiscal year, with 23 unique flights in FY2024 compared to eight in FY2023.
Earlier in a press conference on April 4, Japan Defense Minister Gen Nakatani stated that in FY2024, a total of 23 reports were issued by Japan’s Ministry of Defense on Chinese UAVs and 30 Chinese UAVs including presumed ones, were detected around Japan in comparison to four reports and four UAVs in FY2021.
Nakatani stated that the activity of Chinese UAVs has expanded significantly, saying that as an example, since April 2023, Chinese UAVs have been flying through the airspace between Japan’s Yonaguni Island and Taiwan, which had not been the case before and that in FY2024, the MOD confirmed three flights in international airspace off the coast of the island of Amani Oshima for a total of four UAVs in those flights.
The JSO release also included a table detailing 45 instances of notable flights by Russian and Chinese aircraft that Japan scrambled against, among them included J-15 fighter aircraft operating from People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) aircraft carrier CNS Shandong (17) in July 2024 and J-15s from aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning (16) in October 2024, two Russian Tu-95 bombers with two fighter escorts flying over the Sea of Japan in July 2024 and a Russian bomber flight of two Tu-95 bombers and two Russian fighters escorting the bombers that took place over the Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan in January 2025.
A Friday JSO release showed the same pattern of activity by Chinese aircraft and UAVs around the southwest region that was often seen in FY2024. The JSO release stated that on Friday morning and afternoon, a Chinese Y-9 maritime patrol aircraft Chinese Y-9 patrol aircraft flew in the East China Sea, passed between Okinawa and Miyako Island to reach the Philippine Sea and carried out a circuit flight before returning back the same way to the East China Sea
The release added that in the morning and afternoon of the same day, a presumed Chinese UAV flew in from the East China Sea, passed between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan to enter the Philippine Sea before turning back and returning the same way. A map included in the release showed the UAV as flying parallel to almost the entire length of Taiwan’s east coast before it turned back.
In both cases, fighter aircraft from the JASDF’s Southwest Air Defense Command were scrambled to intercept, according to the release.
