The proposed 100bn yen (£710m) boost to Japanese defence spending announced on Tuesday - which in the first instance will go on anti-missile defences and the modernisation of a small number of fighter jets - looks to be a sure sign that the country's new more conservative government is set on bolstering its armed forces in response to an ever-more assertive China.
For the past decade or so Japanese defence spending has actually been gradually falling.
But Japan's strategic outlook has nonetheless been changing in fundamental ways ever since 2010, when the then government's defence plans spelt out that the potential threat from China was looming ever larger on Japan's radar.
Indeed the centre of gravity of the Japanese defence debate has been shifting for some time - pressing up against the constraints imposed by its post-war constitution.
Its armed forces are slowly becoming more expeditionary in nature.
Japanese warships have, for example, been involved in anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa.
And last year, for the first time since World War II, Japanese troops were involved in training other countries' armed forces, with Japanese military engineers being involved in Cambodia and East Timor.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20957487
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