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TOKYO — In unusually blunt terms, Japan on Tuesday warned that military posturing by Beijing and Washington over Taiwan was posing a threat to its security.
“Stabilizing the situation surrounding Taiwan is important for Japan’s security and the stability of the international community,” the Japanese Defense Ministry wrote in its annual white paper. “It is necessary that we pay close attention to the situation with a sense of crisis more than ever before.”
The comments suggest that Japan, while still wary of being drawn into the rivalry between the United States and China, may be inching closer to Washington, which has urged it to confrontBeijing’s rising military aggression around the region. For a long time, Japan has mostly refrained from wading into such disputes as it sought to balance its interests between the United States, its most important ally, and China, a critical trading partner.