Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Saturday to defend Japan against "provocations" as he toured the southern region of Okinawa near islands at the centre of a boiling territorial dispute with China.
His comments came in the same week that his government approved a rise in defence spending for the first time in over a decade, explicitly aimed at beefing up defence of the contested island chain in the East China Sea.
"The security environment surrounding our country is increasingly tense," he told some 700 troops gathered at a Japanese airbase in Naha on the main Okinawan island, according to television footage and media reports.
"Provocations are continuing against our country's inherent territorial land, air and sea as well as its sovereignty," he said in an apparent reference to China.
"I am determined to stand at the forefront of you all and stand up against the crisis that is there and resolutely protect at all costs our people's lives and assets as well as our country's territorial land, air and sea."
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