China Coast Guard formation enters disputed Senkaku waters

Late on Saturday, the ministry said China had been carrying out another "joint combat patrol" to, "harass the air space and sea around us". It added Taiwan had sent its own aircraft and ships to monitor the situation. Taiwan reports such Chinese patrols a couple of times a month as part of what Taipei says is an ongoing military pressure campaign.

Taiwan’s government says only the island’s people can decide its future.

Japanese leaders have previously avoided publicly mentioning Taiwan when discussing such scenarios, maintaining a "strategic ambiguity" also favoured by Tokyo’s main security ally, the United States.

(Reporting by Joe Cash and Liam Mo in Beijing, Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kate Mayberry)