According to Tokyo's defense ministry, a new analysis of unexplained aerial objects that flew over Japanese airspace in recent years "strongly" indicated that they were Chinese spy balloons.
It stated that it had "strongly demanded China's government confirm the facts" that the Chinese government confirm the incident's details and "that such a situation not occur again in the future"
"After further analysis of specific balloon-shaped flying objects previously identified in Japanese airspace, including those in November 2019, June 2020, and September 2021, we have concluded that the balloons are strongly presumed to be unmanned reconnaissance balloons flown by China," the defense ministry said late Tuesday in a statement.
"Violations of airspace by foreign unmanned reconnaissance balloons and other means are totally unacceptable," it added.
Japan announced last week that it was re-examining a series of instances involving unidentified aerial objects in the wake of a Chinese spy balloon being shot down by the United States after entering American territory.
Last weekend, off the coast of South Carolina, F-22s destroyed a Chinese surveillance balloon. A U.S. F-22 shot down an unidentified object over Alaska on Friday. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, a high-altitude object was shot down near Lake Huron, marking the fourth occasion in less than a week that the U.S. military shot down an object in North American airspace.
Before the object was destroyed near Lake Huron, a U.S. official indicated that the Biden administration had been wary about the pilot descriptions of the unidentified objects shot down over Alaska and Canada due to the conditions under which the objects were sighted.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC News on Sunday morning that he had been briefed by White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan and that the object shot down over Canada was likely another balloon, similar to the high-altitude device shot down over Alaska on Friday.
Saturday, Canada's chief of military staff, General Wayne Eyre, described the instructions given to the crew entrusted with removing the object as a "balloon."
According to a White House statement, both U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the shoot-down on Saturday.
The shooting down of an unidentified flying object near Lake Huron on Sunday is the fourth event of this nature in the past week.
There are currently no clues that the unknown items are connected to China's surveillance balloon, but national security officials throughout the continent appear to be on high alert.
