(VOVworld) – The Japanese cabinet on Tuesday approved a defence White Paper for 2015, in which it describes the security situation surrounding Japan as “increasingly tough.”

A Chinese surveillance ship cruises past a Japanese fishing board chartered by a political group near the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in July 2013 (Photo: Kyodo)

In this 400-plus page document, Japan demands China stop building a new offshore platform that could be used for “military purposes” in the East China Sea.
It also repeated its territorial claims over the disputed islands with South Korea, which are called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean. The document said that North Korea’s statements last May indicated that it had successfully launched a missile from submarine, reiterating that North Korea’s nuclear tests were jeopardising Japan’s security.
Strengthening defence co-operation with the US, maritime security co-operation with Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the Ukraine crisis, the fight against global terrorism, and US military bases on Okinawa are also mentioned in the white paper.
Following the Japanese cabinet’s approval of the 2015 defence white paper, South Korea sent a verbal note to Japan’s Defense Attaché in Seoul, Colonel Goto Nobuhisa, to protest Japan’s territorial claims over the disputed islands. Spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said that Japan’s statements against China’s actions in the East China Sea were groundless and unacceptable.