Japan's defense budget plan concerns neighbors

"Abe's plans for revising defense policies are not aimed at a major change overnight, yet his proposals regarding the militarist past, collective self-defense and the military budget are heading bit by bit toward the final goal — justifying the country's armed forces expansion," Wang said.

CNBC Television of the US said, "A revision in Japan's constitution that upgraded Japan's Self-Defense Forces to a fully operating military would allow Japan to take on a bigger military role in Asia." Abe supports a revision of the pacifist constitution.

Boosting the defense budget coincides with Tokyo's non-stop military dedication to escalating the territorial dispute with China, observers warned.

CNBC said 2013 could "prove to be the year that Japan steps up its military role in Asia", adding that a simmering territorial disagreement with China and Japan's assertive new prime minister will see to that.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said on Monday that the prime minister has talked to Onodera about the regular patrol missions by Chinese aircraft over the Diaoyu Islands.

Abe has ordered the defense minister to continue dispatching fighter jets to "keep a close watch" over the waters off the islands in case of an emergency, Onodera told reporters in Tokyo on Sunday.

And Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force is planning to hold a remote island-retaking drill this month, Kyodo confirmed on Sunday, quoting a source from the self-defense force.

Contact the writer at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn