The pilot of the plane, which was flying over the sea off Amami, declared an emergency before the landing, according to the Defense Ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau.

The Osprey emergency landing came on the heels of one on the island of Iejima in Okinawa Prefecture on Tuesday night. In December last year, the U.S. Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey crash-landed in a shallow water off the coastline of Nago in the same southernmost prefecture. (Jiji Press)