Despite Japan's escalated maritime disputes with China, discussion about "military threats from China" in Japan is indeed exaggerated, Japan's former defense minister said on Monday. 

Zhao Qizheng (center), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Li Zhaoxing (right), director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, and Wei Jianguo, secretary-general of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, react to political dialogue at the forum on Monday. [Xu Jingxing/China Daily]

"There is no need for us to keep stressing that China is a threat. The China-threat theory in Japan has turgidly stirred unease among the people," Shigeru Ishiba said when talking with diplomats and scholars from China and Japan on diplomatic and security affairs at the Beijing-Tokyo Forum.

Japanese scholars attending the forum, however, were still extremely concerned about China's naval development.

"China insists on self-defense, but the stance of its military is more and more aggressive," said Masashi Nishihara, director of Japan's Research Institute for Peace and Security.

A series of Chinese naval exercises this year have shown a different stance, he said, warning that the US has been more and more active in containing the Chinese navy based on Washington's joint military actions with Seoul and Hanoi this summer.