TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer transited the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday (Sept. 25) in response to a Chinese violation of Japan's airspace. 

The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami's passage through the Taiwan Strait marked the first in the history of the JMSDF. The warship's appearance in the strait is reportedly in response to a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft's incursion into Japanese airspace in August.

According to a report by Yomiuri Shimbun, multiple Japanese government sources revealed that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio had ordered the maneuver out of concern that inaction after China's incursion into Japanese territory would embolden Beijing. The JS Sazanami began its passage through the Taiwan Strait from the East China Sea side on Wednesday morning, sailing south for over 10 hours and completing the passage through the Taiwan Strait by the evening. 

Meanwhile, Australian and New Zealand naval vessels passed through the Taiwan Strait. The JMSDF will hold a joint exercise with the Australian and New Zealand navies in the South China Sea on Thursday (Sept. 26).

Since August, China's military activities around Japan have been increasingly frequent. On Aug. 26, at approximately 11:29 a.m. Japan time, a Chinese Shaanxi Y-9 reconnaissance aircraft entered Japanese airspace from the east side of the Danjo Islands, Nagasaki Prefecture. On Sept. 18, three Chinese naval vessels, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, sailed between Okinawa Prefecture’s Yonaguni Island and Iriomote Island, briefly entering Japan's contiguous zone beyond its territorial waters.

These two incidents marked the first time Japan's Ministry of Defense confirmed a Chinese aircraft violating Japanese airspace and a Chinese aircraft carrier sailing within Japan's contiguous zone.

The narrowest part of the Taiwan Strait is approximately 130 kilometers wide. According to internationally recognized standards, territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles (about 22 kilometers) from a nation's baseline. Countries like the US consider the Taiwan Strait as international waters, not part of any country's territorial sea.

However, China opposes referring to the Taiwan Strait as international waters, and successive Japanese governments, mindful of Beijing's reaction, had previously avoided sending JMSDF vessels through the strait. Before this, Japan's Coast Guard vessels had occasionally remained in the high seas of the Taiwan Strait to avoid typhoons but had not passed through the strait.

To assert “freedom of navigation,” the US, Canada, and other nations have regularly sent ships to transit the Taiwan Strait. In September, a German warship passsed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time in 22 years.