Japan claims Chinese a military threat to Asia

Taro Aso, Japan's foreign minister, accused China of fuelling fear in north-east Asia by increasing spending on its military, including a growing nuclear armoury.

China was quick to respond to Mr Aso's statement, with its foreign ministry describing the comments as "highly irresponsible".

The relationship between Tokyo and Beijing is at a post-war low, with the two governments at loggerheads over a number of issues that have been sufficient to provoke violent demonstrations in Chinese cities earlier in the year.

Both claim sovereignty over the tiny islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyutai in China, while a dispute over exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea - and its oil and gas reserves - has escalated to the point where warships are stationed nearby.

Mr Aso said yesterday China's spending on its armed forces was a concern: "It is a neighbouring country with nuclear weapons and its military expenditure has been on the rise for 12 years. It is beginning to pose a considerable threat."

Japan's annual defence white paper has traditionally identified a nuclear-capable North Korea as a threat, although in recent years it has also played up China's defence spending, particularly as it is not clear exactly how much is being spent or on what areas of the military.

"China is fanning threat and anxiety," Mr Aso said. "The content of China's military expenditures is difficult for outsiders to know, and that fuels suspicion."

He makes no bones about his opinions on Japan's neighbours - and China in particular - and his comments in recent years have drawn sharp criticisms from other governments in the region.

Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, told a hastily called press conference: "China sticks to a path of peaceful development. It is highly irresponsible for the Japanese foreign minister to make these remarks. We cannot help but question his real purpose for expressing such a groundless sentiment."

Mr Qin's comments echo those of Chinese president Hu Jintao, who said recently that his country's rapid development "does not pose a threat to anyone" and is a positive influence on the region.

Mr Aso would prefer the mantle of Asia's leader to be held by Japan. In a policy paper titled Asian Strategy as I See It, published earlier this month, Mr Aso said Japan should reflect on the pain it caused its neighbours in the past and consider other countries as equals. But he went on to state that anger in Asia over visits by top-ranking politicians to a Tokyo shrine was merely a failure to "have an identical recognition of history".

Yasukuni shrine has become the key symbol of the chasm between Japan and much of the rest of the continent. The shrine, in central Tokyo, is dedicated to more than two million Japanese who have fallen for their homeland, including 12 leading war criminals executed after the Second World War.

Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, kept his promise to pay an annual visit to the shrine in November and Mr Aso paid his respects to the war dead earlier in the year.

But his vision of Japan as a "thought leader" and a stabiliser that will bring peace and prosperity to the region has unpleasant echoes of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that Imperial Japan forced upon the countries it occupied in the 1930s and 1940s, according to a Japanese professor.

"Some Japanese leaders are making increasingly outlandish statements, and feel they can get away with them, and it smacks of a very complacent attitude towards our Asian neighbours," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Kyoto's Doshisha University.

"It shows a total lack of sensibility of how they see us and at worst displays a 'so what' attitude that is highly unwelcome for Japan," she added.

Talks at the East Asia summit in Kuala Lumpur this month were cancelled when Japan showed no signs of changing its attitude towards its neighbours.

"China and South Korea are not the only countries in Asia. There are a number of countries in Asia that are our neighbours, and our relations with them are good. That's where we can be a thought leader, a trail-blazer." Mr Aso said.

The government of South Korea is also not a fan of Japan's new foreign minister, who some see as a possible replacement for Mr Koizumi when the prime minister steps down in October.

The South Korean government has demanded information concerning the whereabouts of more than 10,000 Koreans who were brought to Japan between 1910 and 1945 to work in mines operated by Mr Aso's father, Tagakichi Aso.

While some conscripts are believed to have returned to Korea or settled in Japan, and an earlier search located the remains of 868 people, Seoul believes more are unaccounted for.