Japan Air Self-Defense Force pilots scrambled 358 times from April to September, compared to 424 times during the same period in 2023. (Japan Ministry of Defense)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Russian and Chinese pilots tended to make fewer challenges to Japanese airspace the past two years, although Japanese military leaders said the potential adversaries mostly kept a pace begun 11 years ago.

Japan Air Self-Defense Force pilots scrambled to meet foreign challengers 358 times from April to September, compared to 424 times during the same period in 2023, according to Self-Defense Force data released Oct. 17.

That’s 16% fewer intercepts by Japanese pilots for that period this year than last.

Between October 2023 and March, the second half of fiscal 2023, Japanese fighters scrambled 245 times, according to the data. Japan’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.

Only one Chinese and one Russian aircraft, both patrol planes, entered Japanese airspace without permission this year. Approaching aircraft typically penetrate Japan’s 230-mile-wide air defense identification zone but turn back before reaching territorial airspace, a 14-mile-wide zone that begins at the coast.

“A very tough national security environment is emerging, and to confront this, we are keeping a close eye and showing more interest in these trends,” Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said at an Oct. 4 news conference. “At the same time, we are responding calmly and resolutely, according to the rules we have.”

Since 2013, Japanese pilots have scrambled an average 450 times during the first half of each fiscal year, as many as 600 times and as few as 300, according to a statement by the Japan Joint Staff accompanying the data release. Japanese pilots began making more intercepts that year, the Joint Staff said.

“It can be said that the number of scrambles in the first semester of fiscal 2024 is at this average level,” the release said.

Chinese aircraft, the most frequent challengers, provoked 241 intercepts between April and September, the first half of fiscal 2024, according to the data. Japanese pilots rose to meet them 304 times during the same period in fiscal 2023.

That fell to 175 during the second half of fiscal 2023.

Russian military aircraft provoked Japanese fighters to respond 115 times between April and September, five more than the same period in 2023, according to the data.

In the second half of fiscal 2023, Japanese jets intercepted Russian aircraft 64 times.

A Russian IL-38 reconnaissance plane entered Japanese airspace three times on Sept. 23, prompting Tokyo to scramble fighter jets to intercept and ultimately warn off the aircraft with flares.

On Sept. 12, a pair of Russian Tu-142 patrol planes circled Japan’s four main islands for the first time in five years. They flew a route that spanned from Okinawa in the south to Hokkaido in the north, the Joint Staff said at the time.

The aircraft did not violate Japan’s airspace, but they did pass over the disputed northern territories, a Joint Staff spokesman told Stars and Stripes.

Japanese fighters scrambled Aug. 26 to intercept a Chinese Y-9 surveillance plane that flew into Japanese airspace southwest of Kyushu, the first such incursion by a Chinese military aircraft.

In July, Moscow sent a pair of missile-armed, long-range Tu-95MS Bear-H bombers on a 10-hour training flight between Japan and South Korea.