Japan's Defense Ministry says Air Self-Defense Force fighters scrambled over 700 times in response to foreign aircraft approaching Japan's airspace in fiscal 2024. It says sightings of Chinese drones nearly tripled in this period.



The ministry on Thursday released a report on scrambles during the year through March. The total stood at 704, an increase of 35 from the previous year.



By country, 99 percent of the cases involved either Chinese or Russian aircraft. Aircraft thought to be Chinese accounted for 464 cases, and those believed to be Russian were involved in 237 of them.



In August last year, the ministry confirmed the first-ever intrusion by a Chinese military aircraft into Japan's airspace. A Chinese intelligence-gathering plane entered Japanese airspace off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture in western Japan.



In September, the ministry confirmed that a Russian patrol plane had intruded into Japanese airspace near Rebun Island in Hokkaido three times in a single day.



The Defense Ministry took note of an increase in the number of scrambles conducted in response to Chinese drones operating near Japan's airspace. The number, which only includes publicized scrambles, stood at 23. That's nearly triple the figure of 8 for fiscal 2023.



In June last year, a Chinese reconnaissance and attack drone was spotted flying over waters off the southwestern Japanese island of Amami Oshima for the first time. The ministry says Chinese drones are expanding their flying zone.



The Defense Ministry says Chinese and Russian military aircraft have kept up their active operations in the skies around Japan. The ministry says it will maintain its reconnaissance and monitoring efforts.