By Kantaro Komiya and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) -Chinese fighter jets flew unusually close to Japanese military patrol planes over the weekend, Tokyo said, after two Chinese aircraft carriers were spotted operating simultaneously in the Pacific for the first time.

Japan and China are blaming each other after Tokyo raised concern that a Chinese fighter jet came dangerously close to Japanese reconnaissance planes.

Tokyo has lodged a strong protest with Beijing following a dangerous encounter between Chinese fighter jets and a Japanese patrol plane in the Pacific