Takeshi Iwaya told Wang Yi by phone on Wednesday he had “serious concerns about the situation in the East China Sea… and increased Chinese military activity,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

They included “the violation of Japanese airspace by a Chinese military aircraft in August and the passage of an aircraft carrier in waters close to Japan’s territorial waters in September,” it said, adding he had called for “a full explanation of the violation of Japanese airspace”.

Tensions have been building between Beijing and Tokyo in recent years as China expands its military presence in the region and Japan boosts security ties with the US and its allies.

A major point of contention in the East China Sea is the uninhabited Senkaku islands, which are claimed by China and by Taiwan, which refer to them as the Diaoyu islands.

A Chinese military aircraft staged the first confirmed incursion by China into Japanese airspace in August, followed in September by a Chinese aircraft carrier sailing between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time.

Later, a Japanese warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time, drawing an angry response from Beijing.

China’s rare test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in late September also drew strong protests from Tokyo.

A Chinese readout of Wednesday’s call said Wang had told Iwaya he was looking forward to “a new atmosphere… and to new progress in China-Japan relations”, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

China’s top diplomat also said Beijing hoped that Japan would “abide by its political commitments on the Taiwan issue, unswervingly adhere to the one-China principle”, according to the CCTV report.

According to the Japanese statement, Iwaya also “emphasised that he hopes to work together with minister Wang to ensure that the people of both countries can reap and feel the fruits of the development of Japan-China relations through the efforts of both governments”.