TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan cites concerns about China's rapid militarization including construction of outposts and their military use in the contested waters of the South China Sea, emphasizing the need to protect open and free waters in the government's annual foreign policy report released Friday.
Japan is required "to coordinate with the international community to protect open, free and peaceful waters" amid China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, says the Diplomatic Bluebook 2016, which was reported to the Cabinet by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Many countries including Japan have expressed concerns about China's unilateral acts to change the status quo that heighten tensions in the South China Sea, such as its massive and fast-paced land reclamation, construction of outposts and the use of them for military purposes, the paper says.
The annual document was released as China is in a territorial dispute with smaller Asian claimants, including the Philippines and Indonesia, in the South China Sea where it constructed runways, advanced radars and deployed surface-to-air missiles, deemed as a way to assert maritime interests and territorial claims.
China has repeatedly and especially criticized Japan and the United States, calling them "outsiders" in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
But the paper says the issue is of "grave concern" to Japan as the country seeks the safety of sea lane and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea due to its reliance on imports of energy resources by sea.
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