White Paper highlights Japan's increasing defence expenditures

JAPAN'S defence expenditures have begun rising again after a decade of decline, while the downward trend in the number of military personnel has also been arrested amid what the Japanese Defence Ministry calls an "increasingly severe" security environment in an annual White Paper published yesterday.

Not only China and North Korea but also Russia were singled out in the White Paper as being among the powers threatening Japan.

"With a trend toward arms build-up and modernisation, and brisker military activity by neighbouring countries getting prominent, security challenges and destabilising factors for Japan and the rest of the Asia-Pacific are becoming more serious," the defence ministry said in the White Paper.