Reconnaissance and bombing against the German colony, alongside a British contingent.

Japan entered the First World War on the Allied side and besieged the German naval base at Tsingtao. The army sent a provisional air unit of four Maurice Farman MF.7s and one Nieuport, which flew 86 sorties. The navy’s seaplane carrier Wakamiya carried Farman seaplanes that, according to Wikipedia, flew 50 sorties and dropped 200 bombs, among the first air raids launched from a ship. The operation was small, but it gave both services their first combat experience within four years of the first flight in Japan.

Resultado The colony surrendered in November 1914.

Loss figures and exact dates of the air operations were not confirmed.

Voando para

Imperial Japanese Army and Navy air services

Onde

Kiautschou Bay, China

Ao lado de

Reino Unido

Contra

Alemanha

Aeronave

Maurice Farman MF.7, Nieuport VI-M, Farman seaplanes

Missões

13686 by the army’s five aircraft and 50 by the navy’s seaplanes (Wikipedia).

Perdas

Não encontrado nas fontes verificadas.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia

Air superiority, close support and strategic bombing of Chinese cities.

From 1937 the army and navy air services fought over China and bombed its cities, among them Shanghai and Nanjing. By the end of 1937 the navy alone had 563 land-based and 332 carrier aircraft. The longest campaign was against Chongqing, the wartime capital: 268 raids between 18 February 1938 and 19 December 1944, flown by both services with G3M and Ki-21 bombers. Wikipedia describes the casualty data as incomplete; one raid in May 1939 killed more than 3,000 people, and on 5 June 1941 about 4,000 suffocated in a tunnel shelter. The A6M Zero made its combat debut over Chongqing in August 1940.

Resultado Merged into the Pacific war; Japan surrendered in 1945.

Chinese and Japanese casualty totals for the air campaign were not found in an authoritative source and are not given.

Voando para

Imperial Japanese Army and Navy air services

Onde

China

Ao lado de

Sem força aérea aliada

Contra

Republic of China and United States (from 1941)

Aeronave

Mitsubishi G3M, Mitsubishi Ki-21, Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Nakajima Ki-43

Missões

Not available in the sources checked.

Perdas

Não consta nas fontes consultadas.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia

Fighter and bomber operations against Soviet and Mongolian forces.

From 11 May to 16 September 1939 the army air service fought a sustained air campaign over the border river Khalkhin Gol. The losses on both sides, as tabulated by Wikipedia from post-war research, were heavy: 162 Japanese aircraft lost in combat against 250 Soviet aircraft lost in all.

Resultado Soviet and Mongolian victory; ceasefire 16 September 1939.

Loss figures come from Wikipedia; primary Japanese and Soviet records were not checked. The aircraft types listed are indicative.

Voando para

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service

Onde

Mongolian–Manchurian border

Ao lado de

Manchukuo

Contra

Soviet Union and Mongolian People’s Republic

Aeronave

Nakajima Ki-27, Mitsubishi Ki-21

Missões

Not given.

Perdas

162 aircraft · 152 killedJapanese: 162 aircraft lost in combat and 152 dead, with 220 more aircraft damaged. Soviet: 250 aircraft lost (208 in combat) and 174 dead. Figures from Wikipedia; each side’s wartime claims were much higher.

Fontes

Wikipédia

Carrier strikes, land-based bombing, air defence of Japan and, from October 1944, suicide attacks.

The navy’s carrier force opened the war at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, destroying more than 188 American aircraft for the loss of 29. Three days later G4M and G3M bombers sank HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. At Midway on 4–7 June 1942 the navy lost four fleet carriers, 248 aircraft and 3,057 men. The loss of trained aircrew was never made good. On 25 October 1944, at Leyte Gulf, the first organised kamikaze mission flew; about 3,800 pilots died in such attacks. Estimates of the ships they sank range from 34 (US Air Force) and 47 (the researcher Bill Gordon) to the 81 claimed by Japanese wartime propaganda, and US sources give about 4,900 US sailors killed. In August 1945 the army air service had 676,863 members.

Resultado Japan surrendered in August 1945 and both air services ceased to exist.

Casualty figures are attributed as the sources give them and are not complete totals; Allied civilian and military deaths caused by Japanese air attacks are not totalled here.

Voando para

Imperial Japanese Army and Navy air services

Onde

Pacific, South-East Asia, China and Japan

Ao lado de

Alemanha e Itália

Contra

United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands, China and Soviet Union (August 1945)

Aeronave

Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Nakajima Ki-43, Mitsubishi G4M, Aichi D3A, Nakajima B5N

Missões

Kamikaze: 2,550 missions according to the US Strategic Bombing Survey as quoted by Wikipedia.

Perdas

Navy aviation alone lost 14,242 aircrew and 1,579 officers killed between 16 December 1941 and 20 March 1945; about 3,800 kamikaze pilots died. Midway cost 248 aircraft and 3,057 dead. A complete total for both services was not found.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia

Scrambling fighters against unidentified aircraft approaching Japanese airspace.

Scramble records begin in 1958. The worst failure came on 6 September 1976, when Viktor Belenko flew a MiG-25 at low level to Hakodate: ground radar lost him and the F-4EJs scrambled from Chitose could not find him. Japan bought the E-2C in response. Since 2012 most scrambles have been against Chinese aircraft. On 13 December 2012 a Chinese government aircraft entered airspace over the Senkakus. Japan holds that there is no territorial issue there; China claims the islands as the Diaoyu Islands, and Taiwan also claims them. The Joint Staff counted a record 1,168 scrambles in FY2016 and 595 in FY2025. In the Japanese government’s account, a Chinese military aircraft violated Japanese airspace in August 2024. A Russian Il-38 crossed into it three times north of Rebun Island on 23 September 2024, when JASDF fighters fired warning flares for the first time. A Chinese coast guard helicopter entered airspace near Uotsurijima on 3 May 2025, and Chinese carrier J-15s illuminated JASDF F-15s with radar for about 30 minutes in December 2025.

Resultado Continuando.

All incident descriptions are the Japanese government’s. Chinese and Russian official accounts of the 2024–2025 incidents were not found in the sources checked. Japan’s first warning shots, reported against a Soviet aircraft over Okinawa in 1987, are UNVERIFIED and left out.

Voando para

Força Aérea de Autodefesa do Japão

Onde

Japanese airspace and air defence identification zone

Ao lado de

Estados Unidos

Aeronave

F-86F, F-104J, F-4EJ, F-15J, F-2, F-35A

Missões

595Scrambles in FY2025: 595 (China 366, Russia 214). FY2024: 704 (464 and 237). Peak: 1,168 in FY2016. FY2018: 999.

Perdas

No losses to hostile action. Accidents on training and alert flying are not counted here.

Fontes

Joint Staff · Joint Staff press release list · Defense of Japan 2025, Digest (English) · Defense of Japan 2026, Digest (English) · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Wikipedia (Japanese)

Transport support under the June 1992 UN Peacekeeping Cooperation Law.

The UN Peacekeeping Cooperation Law of June 1992 allowed the Self-Defense Forces to join UN missions for the first time. The JASDF supported the UN mission in Cambodia (UNTAC) in the early 1990s and took part in the Rwanda refugee relief operation of 1994. These were logistic missions without combat.

Resultado Concluído.

Flight numbers, dates and aircraft counts were not confirmed on official pages.

Voando para

Força Aérea de Autodefesa do Japão

Onde

Cambodia; Rwanda and Zaire

Ao lado de

Nações Unidas

Aeronave

C-130H

Missões

Não encontrado.

Perdas

0 aeronavesNo aircraft losses recorded in the sources checked.

Fontes

Wikipédia

C-130H transport of supplies and personnel between Kuwait and Iraq.

A JASDF advance team assessed the situation in late December 2003, and C-130H flights between Kuwait and Iraq began in March 2004 under special legislation. The mandate was extended several times. By 26 November 2008 the aircraft had carried 671.1 tonnes of supplies, and the last JASDF personnel left Kuwait on 18 December 2008.

Resultado Ended; the last JASDF personnel left Kuwait on 18 December 2008.

Voando para

Força Aérea de Autodefesa do Japão

Onde

Kuwait and Iraq

Ao lado de

United States and Multinational Force – Iraq

Aeronave

C-130H

Missões

Flight numbers not confirmed; 671.1 tonnes of supplies carried from March 2004 to 26 November 2008.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 0 mortosNo losses reported in the sources checked.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia

Evacuation of Japanese nationals and Afghan staff after the fall of Kabul.

A JASDF C-2 reached Kabul on 25 August 2021 but returned to Islamabad the same day because the evacuees had not reached the airport. On 27 August C-130s flew out one Japanese national, 14 Afghans at the request of the United States, and all Self-Defense Forces personnel., and Wikipedia notes that many local embassy employees who wished to leave were left behind.

Resultado One Japanese national and 14 Afghans flown out; many local embassy staff who wished to leave were left behind.

Voando para

Força Aérea de Autodefesa do Japão

Onde

Afghanistan and Pakistan

Ao lado de

Estados Unidos

Aeronave

C-2, C-130H

Missões

Not given.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 0 mortosNenhum.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia