Japan seeks fresh hike in military budget to counter China

China will increase its defence budget by 6.8% next year and is already about four times more than Japan's

Japan's defence ministry is seeking an annual budget increase that will add to past hikes to expand military spending over a decade by almost a sixth, as it looks to counter the growing strength of neighbouring China. Since last year, Japan has identified China as its main national security threat, pointing in a July policy paper to a "sense of crisis" over Beijing's threat to Taiwan, which lies close to Japanese islands along the edge of the East China Sea. The ministry's budget proposal, released on Tuesday, seeks an increase of 2.6 percent in spending, to a record ¥5.48 trillion, for the year starting April 1.