TOKYO: Japanese Defense Minister KIHARA Minoru said Friday the United States has explained to the Japanese government that Osprey transport aircraft of the US military are being operated after thorough and careful maintenance work and safety checks are conducted.

The US side also told Japan that flights of CV-22 Ospreys, the US Air Force variant of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, are not conducted currently and that Washington will share with Tokyo as much detailed information as possible about Wednesday’s fatal Osprey crash in a transparent way,” according to Kihara, who was speaking at a press conference.

On Wednesday, a US Air Force CV-22 Osprey carrying eight crew members crashed off the island of Yakushima in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

“We have not yet received full explanations” about the accident from the United States, Kihara said, adding, “We are concerned that Osprey flights continue taking place despite a lack of sufficient explanations.”

A total of 14 takeoffs and landings by Ospreys of the US Marine Corps and the US Navy have been confirmed at the Marine Corps’ Futenma air station in Okinawa Prefecture and the US Air Force’s Kadena Air Base in the same southernmost Japan prefecture after Kihara requested Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, commander of US Forces Japan, on Thursday to stop flying Ospreys, the minister said.

At Thursday’s press conference, a deputy press secretary of the US Defense Department said that the US side has not received an official request from Japan for suspending Osprey flights.

In response, Kihara said that he and Japanese Foreign Minister KAMIKAWA Yoko “have repeatedly requested” the US side for Osprey flight suspension. “We have clearly asked the United States not to fly (Ospreys) unless safety is confirmed,” Kihara said.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary MATSUNO Hirokazu also said, at a separate press conference Friday, that the Japanese government has “officially” requested the US side to suspend Osprey flights.

At a meeting with US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Thursday, Kamikawa asked the United States to suspend Osprey flights. On this, the minister told a press conference Friday, “We earlier today confirmed with the US Embassy in Tokyo that (the US side) recognizes that yesterday’s request was official.”