The Japanese Ministry of Defense's Integrated Staff Supervision Department released a report on April 19, disclosing the data on the emergency dispatch of Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets in the 2023 fiscal year, according to data released by Japan, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force has as many as 669 emergency take-off missions in 2023, of which 479 are aimed at China, so more than 70% of the proportion is in response to China. Japan's Ministry of Defense also announced areas for emergency take-off activities of Self-Defense Force fighter jets, including the Ryukyu Sea, the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, with particularly frequent activity in the airspace over the eastern part of Taiwan Island, as well as missions in the airspace over the Sea of Japan to deal with military aircraft from China, most recently the use of Japanese fighter jets to track and monitor the PLA's Wuzhan-7 high-altitude drone.
Judging from the data released by Japan, in addition to dealing with China, Japan's Self-Defense Forces have also been dealing with Russia for a long time, and 26% of fighter jets have taken off urgently to deal with the activities of Russian military aircraft. The current equipment of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force is composed of three types of aircraft: F-15J/DJ, F-2A/B and F-35A, and the rest is composed of E-2C/D and E-767, as well as auxiliary aircraft such as KC-767 and KC-46A.
In the context of Japan's refusal to allow China to change the status quo, Japan is now "seeking a hammer to get a hammer", obviously there are 479 emergency takeoffs in a year, for the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force is "exhausted", according to the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, each emergency take-off will use at least 2 fighter jets, so a year, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force must have at least 958 fighter sorties to keep an eye on China's military aircraft, in fact, according to the on-site observation of the Beacon Front Station, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force has used 10 F-15J at a time/ DJ fighters took off urgently, thus responding to the PLA patrol mission in the airspace over the East China Sea, and for two consecutive days of action.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida frequently publicly exaggerates the so-called "China threat" on domestic and international occasions, and constantly mentions that China is not allowed to change the status quo, Japan has a definition of the status quo, in fact, it not only includes the East China Sea and the South China Sea, but also actively cooperates with the United States' "Taiwan card", and some politicians have exaggerated the remarks that "if there is something on Taiwan, there is something wrong with Japan", so Japan wants to include the Taiwan Strait in the status quo, so as to actively cooperate with the United States' "Indo-Pacific strategy". When the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was carrying out daily training and patrol missions, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force was asking for trouble, and had to use the emergency take-offs of fighter jets to keep an eye on it, so it had 479 emergency take-off missions a year.
Today, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's F-15J/DJ fighters are quite old, and many F-15J/DJ fighters have used patches to strengthen the airframe, which has deteriorated dramatically due to long-term high-intensity flight. Although Japan already has the F-35A Lightning II fighter, because the emergency take-off is only to show its existence, it still uses the old fighter to carry out the mission, so it has not yet used the new F-35A Lightning II fighter, which makes the F-15J/DJ fighter even worse. In fact, Japan has to learn to adapt to the PLA's daily patrols, because this is a normal action, and if Japan insists on not allowing China to change the status quo, it will have to pay a price.