White Paper Warns Security Environment Around Japan "Increasingly Severe"

Amid growing tensions between China and North Korea, Japanese Defence Ministry's white paper -adopted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - stated that the security environment around Japan is becoming "increasingly severe", BBC reports.

It warned that China's "profoundly dangerous acts", mostly over territorial claims in the East China Sea, might eventually lead to "unintended consequences" in the region; probability of a potential military clash is very high.

Adopting the white paper Tuesday, Abe and his cabinet criticized China's declaration of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) late last year, AFP states. The ADIZ was also condemned by the United States.

The 505-page Japanese paper also stressed that China's military purposes had increased four-fold over the past decade.

It also emphasized on China's "assertive actions with regard to issues of conflicts of interest in the maritime domain, as exemplified by its attempts to change the status quo by coercion".

"Japan is deeply concerned about the establishment of 'the East China Sea ADIZ' which is profoundly dangerous act that... escalate the situation and may cause unintended consequences" in the region, the paper said.

China and Japan are locked in a bitter row over an island chain, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Japan controls the islands.

With the dispute escalating, China sent ships and planes to move in and out of the territory - which Japan claims as its own. This situation might lead to a possible clash between the two nations.

The paper added that the number of instances of Japanese fighters scrambling to meet Chinese planes was "increasing dramatically".

"As Japan has great concern about these Chinese activities, it will need to pay utmost attention to them, as these activities also raise concerns over regional and global security," it read.