Paper tiger  [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

Japan's new defense guidelines and its midterm defense buildup program for the next five years, adopted by its cabinet on Dec 17, sent worrying signals that could jeopardize regional peace and stability and hurt its own pacifist image in the international arena.

The new "dynamic defense capability" policy marks a major departure from Japan's decade-old concept of maintaining the minimum necessary defense capability for the country.

Under the new National Defense Program Guidelines, Japan will step up efforts to make its Self-Defense Forces more mobile and will shift the focus of its defense capabilities to its southwest, where it shares a maritime border with China.

Such a paranoid defense strategy, featuring a Cold War mentality, has raised alarm both at home and abroad. In Japan, some lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan as well as the pacifist Social Democratic Party have voiced concerns that the new guidelines will increase tensions in the region.

Japan's provocative defense policy is not good news to its Asian neighbors, as the country has yet to whole-heartedly reflect upon its military past, which brought untold suffering to many of those countries.