Japan scrambled fighter jets on Thursday to head off a Chinese government plane flying towards disputed islands in the East China Sea, the defence ministry said.
It said the Y-12 propeller plane did not enter airspace around the Tokyo-controlled islands known as the Senkakus, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus.
The aircraft headed back towards China after Japan’s military planes became airborne, defence officials said, declining to give further details.
The incident came as three Chinese government ships sailed into territorial waters around the islands, Japan’s coastguard said.
The three marine surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone off Uotsuri island shortly after 7.00am, the coastguard said in a statement.
It said the trio left the zone after just over two hours.