Tokyo (CNN)Japanese fighter pilot Lt. Col. Takamichi Shirota says his country is under increasing pressure from the air. Analysts say it’s a pressure faced by few other nations.
More than twice a day, Japanese fighter pilots hear a siren blare, bolt up from their ready-room seats, run to their jets, and scream aloft, ready to intercept a potentially unidentified incursion into Japanese airspace.It happened to Japan’s Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) 947 times in the last fiscal year ending in March. The culprit in most of those cases, warplanes from China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).And Shirota says the number of potential incursions is growing.