Japan is Beefing Up It's Defense as China tries to Flex it's Muscle

Moving from decades-long pacifism, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that Japan will significantly boost defense spending for drones, fighter jets and naval destroyers to challenge the growing military threats from a rising China. 

Abe unveiled a sweeping five-year national security strategy that will extend Japan's military reach farther into the East China Sea, which China claims it owns and has recently taken steps to assert control over.

Members of Japan's Self-Defense Force rappel down 

from a UH-60JA helicopter during an annual live-fire drill 

southwest of Tokyo on Aug. 20. (Photo: Koji Sasahara, AP)

The announcement comes after weeks of threats from China's People's Liberation Army, which demanded that the ships or planes of other nations seek permission from China when traversing the massive sea that the United States considers international waters.

"The security situation around Japan has become even more severe, and in order to maintain peace, it is necessary to implement national security policies in a more strategic and structured manner," Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Tuesday.

"This does not in any way change Japan's pacifist policies, which have been consistent throughout the postwar period," the ministry said.

A focus of Abe's plan is to shift troops and equipment to the nation's southwest territories that include the Senkaku islands, a chain China says belongs to it. The shift reflects Japan's willingness to ease postwar restrictions on the armed forces.

Japan's constitution bars the nation from possessing "land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential." The wording of the document was demanded by U.S. military forces as part of Japan's surrender in World War II. Abe's plan would alter the definition of self-defense to include action on behalf of allies under attack.

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