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 The ministry's annual white paper comes after intermittent testing
by North Korea of ballistic missiles in defiance of a U.N. ban, and
a record number of scrambles by Japanese fighter jets in April-June
due to increased flights by Chinese and Russian planes close to
Japan's air space.
"With a trend toward arms buildup and modernization, and brisker
military activity by neighboring countries getting prominent,
security challenges and destabilizing factors for Japan and the rest
of the Asia-Pacific are becoming more serious," the ministry said in
the paper.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power in December 2012 intent
on easing the limits of a post-war pacifist constitution on the
military to let Japan play a bigger global security role.
Abe's government this year took some historic steps away from
Japan's post-war pacifism by easing weapons export restrictions and
ending a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad.
The moves have been viewed warily elsewhere in Asia, in particular
in China. Ties between China and Japan were already strained by a
territorial dispute over a group of tiny East China Sea isles as
well as rows over the legacy of Japan's wartime aggression. Patrol
ships from both countries routinely shadow each other near the
islands, stoking fear of clashes.
Recently, however, Abe has renewed a call for a bilateral summit
with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two governments are trying to
arrange a summit on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim conference in
Beijing in November, the Nikkei newspaper said on Monday.
The ministry's report described China's action in maritime disputes
as "high-handed" and called on China to observe international norms.
In November, China launched an air defense identification zone
covering a swath of the East China Sea, including the disputed
isles, and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures"
against aircraft that failed to identify themselves.
"These are very dangerous measures that could lead to the unilateral
change of the status quo in the East China Sea, escalation of the
situation, and some unexpected development," the ministry said. "We
are deeply concerned."
China's defense budget soared fourfold over the past decade to 808
billion yuan ($131 billion), while Japan's defense spending dipped
by 1.9 percent over the same period to 4.78 trillion yen ($47
billion), the ministry said.
China's Defense Ministry said Japan was exaggerating the threat
posed by its military spending to justify its own build-up, adding
it was assessing the white paper.
"Japan ignores the facts, makes unreasonable criticism of China's
military development ... and deliberately embellishes the China
threat as an excuse to adjust its military and security policies and
expand arms manufacturing," the ministry said in a statement on its
website.
Japan and the United States are set to revise cooperation guidelines
by the end of the year to reflect the changing security environment
and better respond to threats in such areas as space and cyber
space.
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'GLOBAL ISSUE'
Japan's Defence Ministry called North Korea's missile and nuclear
programs a "grave destabilizing factor" and warned that progress in
the projects could embolden the North to resort to more provocation.
"If North Korea extends the range of ballistic missiles further,
reduces the size of nuclear arms and turns them into warheads, the
country could come to believe it has secured strategic deterrence
against the United States," it said.
There is a possibility that the advanced version of North Korea's
Taepodong-2 ballistic missiles, when fitted with a warhead weighing
less than one tonne, could have a range of more than 10,000 km
(6,200 miles), covering part of the continental United States, the
ministry said.
Japan is also keeping a wary eye on Russia's involvement in turmoil
in Ukraine, where Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea
in March.
"This change to the status quo by Russia, with force in the
background, is a global issue that affects the entire international
society," it said.
Any attempt to change the status quo by force makes Japan nervous as
China challenges Japan's control over the East China Sea islets,
known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
The ministry also touched upon another set of small islands,
controlled by South Korea but claimed by Japan, saying they were
Japan's inherent territory. The islets are called the Takeshima in
Japanese and Dokdo in Korean.
That assertion drew an angry reaction from South Korea, which called
the claim "preposterous". Its Defence Ministry summoned the Japanese
military attache to protest.
"The Japanese government should bear in mind that as long as it
continues its unjust claim over Dokdo, the road to improving ties
between the two countries can only be a long one," South Korea's
Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Michael Martina in
Beijing; Editing by Linda Sieg, William Mallard, Robert Birsel)
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