Japan's two main airlines will no longer recognise an air defence zone declared by China at the weekend over an area covering disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The airlines have agreed to stop filing flight plans to China on routes through the zone at the request of Japan's government.
China set up its "air defence identification zone" on Saturday and says unless planes report their flight plans, they will face military measures, the BBC reports.
The Japanese government does not want to see the country's own airline bestowing any form of legitimacy on China's new self-declared air defence zone in the East China Sea.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary has told the airlines that the new zone has no validity whatsoever in Japan. Starting on Tuesday, Japan Airlines and ANA will stop filing flight plans with the Chinese for flights that cross the East China Sea zone.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand says the flight path of its Auckland to Shanghai service is through the restricted area.
However, the airline said on Wednesday it has always submitted flight plans to the Chinese authorities on a monthly basis, so its services are unaffected by the new rules.
Singapore Airlines and Australia's Qantas have said they will abide by the new rules.
B-52s flown over disputed islands
In defiance of the Chinese declaration, the United States has flown two B-52 bombers over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The Chinese say they monitored the flights.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon said the planes had followed "normal procedures".
The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are a source of rising tension between the two nations, the BBC reports.
US Colonel Steve Warren at the Pentagon said Washington had "conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus".
"We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies."
The unnamed aircraft had taken off from Guam on Monday and the flight was part of a regular exercise in the area, US defence officials said. Both planes later returned to Guam.
The US - which has more than 70,000 troops in Japan and South Korea - had previously said it would not abide by the Chinese-imposed zone.
