Report: Japanese government does not regard China as threat
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-01 10:12

The government indicated Tuesday that it does not regard China as a threat, after Japan's foreign minister voiced concerns about its giant neighbor's rapid military expansion, a news report said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso delivers a speech at a meeting of Federation of Economic Organizations, the Keidanren, in Tokyo, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2005. [AP]

According to a government position paper issued Tuesday, Japan "does not think China has the intention to invade Japan," Kyodo news agency reported.

The government submitted the position paper in response to a written question from opposition Social Democratic Party lawmaker Kantoku Teruya, who asked the government to clarify its policy on China.

The Cabinet-approved paper says a threat becomes real only if a country's capability to invade another is combined with an intention to do so, Kyodo said.

Officials from the Cabinet Office and Foreign Ministry were not available to comment on the position paper late Tuesday.

Last month, Foreign Minister Taro Aso warned that China's growing military budget represented a danger that was arousing suspicion among other nations.

"It's a neighboring country with nuclear bombs, and its military expenditure has been on the rise for 12 years. It's beginning to pose a considerable threat," Aso told a news conference in Tokyo on December 22.

In the position paper, the government called on China to be more "transparent" about its military spending, which has increased for 17 consecutive years, Kyodo said.

Japan has long listed China's military expansion as a top security concern in the region but Aso's remarks were unusually blunt and echoed U.S. concerns on the issue.

Relations between the Asian neighbors have soured in recent months over a string of disputes, including Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to a war shrine that China says glorifies Japan's militaristic past. Other thorny issues include interpretations of Japan's wartime brutality, and undersea gas deposits in the East China Sea.