TOKYO: Japan's government said on Tuesday that three unidentified flying objects spotted over the nation's territory in three years from 2019 are "strongly suspected" to have been Chinese spy balloons.
"As a result of further investigation of specific balloon-shaped flying objects that were confirmed in Japan's airspace in the past, it is strongly suspected that they were unmanned surveillance balloons from China," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
It is the first time Japan has made such an announcement since the United States shot down a similar Chinese spy balloon earlier this month after its incursion into United States airspace, according to a defence ministry official.
Tokyo demanded that Beijing confirm facts and prevent a recurrence, the ministry said. The government also told China that Japan would never accept any violation of its territorial skies.
The three flying objects were detected in Kagoshima prefecture, southwestern Japan, in November 2019 and the northeastern prefectures of Miyagi and Aomori in June 2020 and September 2021, respectively, according to the ministry.
"We will put more effort than ever into information gathering and surveillance activities against balloons, including unstaffed ones for foreign espionage," it said in a press release.
"Violations of airspace by foreign unstaffed reconnaissance balloons and other means are totally unacceptable," it added.
The ministry did not elaborate on why it presumed that the flying objects were from China.
The announcement came after the ministry reanalysed past cases of unidentified flying objects after the US downed a Chinese balloon on Feb 4.
So far, four flying objects have been shot down by the US military over North American airspace this month.
Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told a press conference earlier Tuesday that the Self-Defence Forces will be allowed to use weapons, including air-to-air missiles, to deal with airspace incursions.
