TOKYO, June 30 (Reuters) - Japan's top military commander said on Thursday that Chinese military activity was escalating in the East China Sea, with a spike in emergency jet scrambles in the past three months.

"It appears that Chinese activity is escalating at sea and in the air," Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces, said at a regular press briefing in Tokyo.

Japanese air force jet scrambles rose by more than 80 in the three months ending on Thursday from 114 a year earlier, he said. Detailed figures for the period will be announced next week.

Kawano also said that Japan was "very concerned," about how China will react to the expected ruling by an international court on China's territorial claims in the South China Sea on July 12. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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