China is top worry in Japan defence report

TOKYO — China’s growing airspace and maritime activities have escalated tension in disputed waters, Japan’s Defence Ministry said in an annual report yesterday, stressing the need for its military to play a greater role both inside and outside the country.

But there is growing concern that Japan’s defence budget may be insufficient to achieve the goals set by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to bolster the country’s military.

The annual White Paper, released after Cabinet approval, said Japan is particularly concerned about China’s establishment of an Air Defence Identification Zone that includes disputed East China Sea islands that both countries claim.

Japan scrambled jets in response to Chinese military flights 400 times last year, up from about 300 a year earlier. The zone is China’s attempt to unilaterally change the status quo, escalate the situation and may cause unintended consequences in the East China Sea, the report said. “Japan is strongly concerned,” it said.

The 429-page White Paper also said North Korea has improved long-range ballistic missile capability and miniaturisation of nuclear warheads, and could develop a sense of confidence over its strategic deterrence against the United States, leading to an escalation of military provocations by North Korea in the region.

Japan’s defence budget grew 2.2 per cent to ¥4.8 trillion (S$58.3 billion) for fiscal 2014 from the previous year — a second year of increase in a row since Mr Abe took office, after more than a decade of decline to as low as ¥4.6 trillion in 2012, down 6 per cent from 2002.

Mr Abe’s Cabinet last month approved a reinterpretation of Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution to allow the military to defend foreign countries and play a larger international role. In December, Japan adopted a new defence strategy, which called for a 5 per cent increase in defence spending over the next five years.

Some Japanese media and experts have speculated that more money will be needed to achieve the more assertive military role, but Mr Abe has ruled out any changes to the five-year plan.

The 2014-19 defence programme includes acquisition of surveillance drones, anti-missile destroyers and other equipment, as Japan’s defence priority shifts from its northern reaches to the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing are embroiled in a territorial spat over the uninhabited islands. The purchases would cost ¥24.7 trillion, up 5 per cent from the previous plan.

Meanwhile, China’s defence budget soared four-fold over the past decade to 808 billion yuan (S$163 billion), the Japanese Defence Ministry noted.

But China’s Defence Ministry said Japan was exaggerating the threat posed by its military spending to justify its own build-up.

“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.

Mr Abe has also 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. AGENCIES