Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada says that drones will be included as conceivable targets once the government eases rules for weapon use by the Self-Defense Forces against unidentified flying objects violating the nation's airspace.
Japan's ruling bloc approves the government's plan of relaxing the requirements for weapon use against flying objects violating the nation's airspace, amid concerns over how to respond to territorial incursions by Chinese spy balloons.
Japan's government is considering relaxing the requirements for weapon use against flying objects that violate its airspace, according to lawmakers, a day after it said China may have flown spy balloons over the country in recent years.
Japan's government says three unidentified flying objects spotted over the nation's territory in three years from 2019 are "strongly suspected" as Chinese spy balloons.
An unidentified balloon was spotted over the sea off Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu last year, the government says, in its latest revelation of suspected sightings of Chinese spy balloons similar to the one recently shot down by the United States.