Japanese flying through China air defense zone defiant

[World News Headlines -]

By Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese travelers flying through China's new air defense zone on Wednesday said they supported a government-backed decision by Japan's main carriers to defy a Chinese demand for flight plans, with most unfazed by any potential risk. China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace. The zone covers a large part of the East China Sea, including small uninhabited islands at the center of a bitter territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo. "It's unsettling to hear the airlines are not filing flight plans, but I understand the Japanese government telling them not to," said Hiroko Niizuma, 36, at Tokyo's Haneda airport before boarding a flight operated by ANA Holdings to Taiwan, where she works as a language teacher.

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