TOKYO, August 18. /TASS/. Japan scrambled fighter jets on Friday as two Russian Ilyusyhin-38 military planes flew over the Sea of Japan, the website of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the country's self-defense forces has said.

It is noted that the Russian planes flew over the Sea of Japan, the Tsushima Strait, then made a U-turn over the East China Sea and returned in the opposite direction.

A day earlier, Japan's Defense Ministry said five Russian naval vessels and six Chinese military ships sailed between the islands of Okinawa and Miyako. According to the ministry, it was the first time the ships of the two countries performed a joint maneuver in this place.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said earlier that China demanded that Japan stopped taking useless measures that created obstacles to joint patrols by Chinese and Russian armed forces in the region. He emphasized that in carrying out joint patrols, China and Russia strictly abided by international law.