TOKYO -- The Japanese government stepped up its alarm over Chinese assertiveness, warning in a report issued Friday that the country faces its worst security threats since World War II as it plans to implement a new strategy that calls for a major military buildup.
The 2023 defense white paper, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet, is the first since the government adopted a new National Security Strategy in December, seen as a break from Japan's postwar policy limiting the use of force to self-defense.
China, Russia and North Korea contribute to "the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II," according to the 510-page report. It states China's external stance and military activities have become a "serious concern for Japan and the international community and present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge."
Russia and China also stepped up strategic ties, the white paper read, noting five joint bomber flights since 2019, and several joint navigations of Chinese and Russian warships it said were "clearly intended for demonstration of force against Japan and of grave concern" to both Japan and the region.
The report predicted that China will possess 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 and increase its military superiority over Taiwan, in what Japan views as a security threat, especially to its southwestern islands including Okinawa.
While Okinawan Gov. Denny Tamaki has called for U.S. bases there to be reduced and for greater efforts in diplomacy and dialogue with Beijing, the central government has been reinforcing the defenses of the remote southwestern islands, including Ishigaki and Yonaguni, where new bases for missile defense have been installed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who in 2017 set a goal of building a "world-class military" by the mid-21st century, may move the target forward, the report said, noting his call for a rapid advancement of the People's Liberation Army in his speech at the Communist Party congress in October.
North Korea is rapidly progressing in its nuclear and missile development and poses "a graver, more imminent threat to Japan than ever before," the report said. North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022, including ICBMs, and the report noted it is now believed to have an ability to conduct nuclear attacks on Japan and the continental United States.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the Japanese defense paper interfered in China's internal affairs and "deliberately played up the so-called Chinese threat and created tensions in the region." She urged Tokyo to "stop finding excuses for its military expansion."
She said China's military policy is defensive, and "military cooperation such as joint patrols with relevant countries is in line with international law and practice."
Information for this article was contributed by Joe McDonald and Kim Tong-hyung of The Associated Press.
FILE - A Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) launches from the guided missile cruiser USS Cape St. George (CG 71), in operation in the Mediterranean Sea, on March 23, 2003. Japan stepped up its alarm over China's assertiveness in the region, its growing military ties to Russia and its claims on Taiwan in an annual defense paper released Friday, July 28, 2023 that is the first under Tokyo's new security strategy calling for a major military buildup.(Intelligence Specialist 1st Kenneth Moll/U.S. Navy via AP, File)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, shakes hands with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, as they and China's Vice Chairman of the standing committee of the countrys National Peoples Congress Li Hongzhong, right, attend a meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, July 27, 2023. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)