Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters that China had voiced concerns over the use of Self-Defence Force planes to deliver tents and other emergency supplies to China's Sichuan province, as this could "risk causing friction."
Japanese warplanes have not entered China since World War II. Wartime hostilities with Japan continue to be a source of resentment in China.
Deputy foreign ministers from the two countries held talks on Thursday to discuss the aid plans. Japan has already sent a group of 60 rescuers to Sichuan, and two medical teams.
The May 12 earthquake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale according to the China Seismological Bureau, was the worst to hit the country in more than three decades, and affected eight provinces, with Sichuan suffering the bulk of the devastation. The official death toll currently stands at 68,516 with some 20,000 people missing.
