TOKYO: Japanese and US forces have conducted a joint fighter jet flight over the Sea of Japan, Japan's Defense Ministry said Thursday, in an apparent response to a Russia-China joint bomber flight while US President Joe Biden was in Tokyo.

The Japan-US joint flight on Wednesday was meant to 'confirm combined capabilities of the Japanese SDF and the US forces and to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance,' the Joint Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Force said in a statement. 'In order to respond to any emergency, we are taking utmost readiness.'