Japan would boost its military headcount, the biggest increase in two decades, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Sunday, amid the simmering territorial tensions with China over a group of islands in the East China Sea.
The number of military personnel, now standing at about 225,000, would increase by 287, representing an expansion of about 0.1 percent, in the next fiscal year starting in April, Onodera said after meeting Finance Minister Taro Aso for the final budgetary negotiations, Reuters reported.
"This would allow us to firmly reinforce our surveillance activities in the southwest," Onodera said.
The disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have a total area of about 7 sq kilometer and lie southwest of Japan's southern-most prefecture, Okinawa, and east of the Chinese mainland.
Read More on International Business Times Reported by IBTimes 2 hours ago.
The number of military personnel, now standing at about 225,000, would increase by 287, representing an expansion of about 0.1 percent, in the next fiscal year starting in April, Onodera said after meeting Finance Minister Taro Aso for the final budgetary negotiations, Reuters reported.
"This would allow us to firmly reinforce our surveillance activities in the southwest," Onodera said.
The disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have a total area of about 7 sq kilometer and lie southwest of Japan's southern-most prefecture, Okinawa, and east of the Chinese mainland.
Read More on International Business Times Reported by IBTimes 2 hours ago.