Joint Chinese and Russian drills draw sharp Japanese protest

China and Russia, meanwhile, have stepped up joint naval and air operations around Japan, prompting Tokyo to increase surveillance and strengthen its defences in the southwest island chain amid concerns over regional security.

Japanese forces said they spotted four vessels — a Chinese Renhai-class guided-missile destroyer, a Luyang III-class guided-missile destroyer, a Fuchi-class replenishment ship and a Russian Steregushchiy-class frigate — sailing towards their EEZ shortly before one of the Chinese destroyers conducted the live-fire exercise.

Nearby vessels were informed by radio immediately before the exercise that live-firing would be conducted, Kihara said.

In a high-profile incident in December, Japan said that Chinese fighter jets aimed their radar at Japanese military aircraft near its Okinawa islands, an account Beijing disputed.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Nobuhiro Kubo, Hina Suzuki and John Geddie; Editing by Stephen Coates and Raju Gopalakrishnan)