Japan scrambles jets against Chinese plane that breached airspace

PHOTO CAPTION: Japanese pilots race to two Mitsubishi F-15J Eagles during a scramble demonstration as part of a 10-day U.S.-Japan Bilateral Career Training at Chitose Air Base, Japan, April 14, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Benjamin W. Stratton via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) -Japan's defence ministry said it had scrambled jets against a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft that had briefly breached its airspace on Monday morning.

The aircraft was identified as a Y-9 reconnaissance plane that flew over the Danjo Islands to the west of the southern island of Kyushu between around 11:29 a.m. and 11:31 a.m.

The ministry said it was the first time a Chinese military aircraft had breached Japan's airspace, and that the government had lodged a strong protest against Beijing through diplomatic channels.

Separately, the Japanese foreign ministry said Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano had summoned a senior official at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo to lodge a protest against the incursion and to strongly demand the prevention of such breaches.

Chinese foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Bernadette Baum)