Tokyo's defence minister said Friday it was "unacceptable" for China to blame Japan for close encounters between their military planes over the Pacific high seas last weekend. Nakatani said Friday that "Chinese statements portraying Japan as the cause of the latest incident are unacceptable".

The maneuvers over international waters in the Pacific last weekend prompted Japanese officials to warn China not to repeat them and risk a collision.

Japan and China are blaming each other after Tokyo raised concern that a Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close to Japanese reconnaissance planes.