Washington: Asserting that Beijing may have sent spy balloons over its territory to gather intelligence, the Japanese government has stated that it "strongly" suspects China was responsible for three separate airspace incursions between 2019 and 2021.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Japan's Defense Ministry made the accusation public for the first time. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that Beijing was likely responsible for several earlier intrusions.

Matsuno noted that Japanese officials had contacted their Chinese counterparts to issue a warning against further violations. "As a result of further investigation of specific balloon-shaped flying objects that were confirmed in Japan's airspace in the past, it is strongly suspected that they were unmanned surveillance balloons from China," Matsuno said.

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In a press release, the ministry stated that the objects were discovered in November 2019, June 2020, and once more in September 2021, and promised to "put more effort than ever into information gathering and surveillance activities against balloons, including unmanned ones for foreign espionage."

The Ministry of Defense did not say whether any of the three enigmatic objects were shot down, despite Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada's earlier statement that the military is permitted to use force, including air-to-air missiles, to bring down intruding objects or aircraft.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, acknowledged knowledge of the allegation but emphasized that Japan should "be objective and impartial on this instead of following the US's suit in dramatizing it."

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After the US shot down a Chinese balloon that had entered American airspace last month, the military conducted a fresh analysis of several prior instances of unidentified flying objects being spotted in Japanese airspace. Beijing has refuted the claim that the balloon was used for surveillance, despite US officials' insistence that it was. Beijing claims the balloon was intended to collect meteorological data and simply drifted off course.

Although the airship's exact purpose is still unknown, a recent Washington Post report suggested that it may have accidentally flown over US territory after all. According to several unnamed officials, analysts are now "examining the possibility that China didn't intend to penetrate the American heartland." The aircraft may have accidentally entered US airspace instead, according to the officials, after running into "strong winds."

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Three other mysterious objects have been spotted near or over American territory this month alone, making the balloon not the only enigmatic object to enter US airspace in recent weeks. Since then, the Chinese balloon is the only one that has survived being shot down by US warplanes.