Japan believes that China flew spy balloons over its territory

The Japanese government revealed that among 2019 and 2021 detected three unidentified flying objects over its territory that it suspects could be Chinese spy balloons like the one it shot down NOW at the beginning of February.

“As a result of further analysis of balloon-shaped flying objects that have been confirmed in the airspace of Japan (…), we have concluded that they are strongly suspected to be unmanned reconnaissance balloons operated by China,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

It’s the first time Japan has been speaking publicly about the issue since the US shot down what it called a Chinese spy balloon that invaded US airspace this month.

Government of Joe Biden accuses China of having, with the participation of the armed forces, developed a “program” of balloons for espionage work that have already flown over more than 40 countries on 5 continents.

China defends that the balloon that was shot down by the United States was a meteorological device that “deviated from its original course” due to force majeure.

According to details presented by the defense, Japan saw the objects in November 2019, June 2020 and September 2021.

Japan asked China “to confirm the facts related to this matter through diplomatic channels” and “strongly” asked the neighboring country “to prevent such a situation from happening again in the future,” according to the same sources.

Japan’s defense ministry has not explained why it believes the flying objects belonged to China.

The announcement comes after Japanese authorities decided to re-analyze past sightings of unidentified flying objects over their territory after Washington shot down a Chinese jet earlier this month, which Beijing said was a meteorological research aircraft.