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.

Chinese fighter jets flew unusually close to Japanese military patrol planes over the weekend, Tokyo said, after two Chinese aircraft carriers were spotted operating simultaneously in