(VOVworld)-Japan hopes that China will improve transparency in its defense program, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday, following a US government report that suggests China's actual military spending has been more than released.

The top Japanese government spokesman said at a press conference that the international community will strongly call on China to improve transparency and comply with international rules through various channels.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday in a report to Congress on military and security developments in China that it is "difficult to estimate actual People's Liberation Army military expenses due to China's poor accounting transparency."

Japan-China relations have sunk to their lowest level in years since the Japanese government put a group of East China Sea islands at the center of a territorial row under state control in September 2012. China has repeatedly sent patrol ships and airplanes to areas around the uninhabited islets in protest.