SpaceWar.com reports: “Joint military activities around Japan by China and Russia are of ‘grave concern’ and North Korea poses a greater threat than ever, Tokyo’s defence ministry said Friday.

In its annual white paper, the ministry outlined its stance on issues from tensions around Taiwan to the intensifying rivalry between China and the United States.

Repeated joint sorties by Chinese and Russian ships around Japan ‘are clearly intended as a demonstration of force against Japan and are a grave concern from the perspective of national security,’ it said.

North Korea, meanwhile, which often conducts missile tests in Japan’s direction, poses a ‘more grave and imminent threat to Japan’s national security than ever before’.

In previous years, the defence paper has raised the need to counter regional threats including growing Chinese military clout and a nuclear-armed North Korea…”