TOKYO - 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 Committee 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.

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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.

The US has conducted condensed military drills with the Republic of Korea and Vietnam, its old rival, in the neighborhood of China since July and vowed to remain in the South China Sea where China has overlapped territorial disputes with some countries.

Media reports have linked China's military exercises to its discontent with the US moves.

Chen Jian, former Chinese ambassador to Japan, said Japan's views on the Chinese military have long been disturbed by the Cold War thinking pattern.

"Some of our problems are due to lack of confidence and mutual trust," Chen said. "We both have our own advantages and there is no need to be overly concerned."

Liu Jiangyong, a senior scholar on Japanese studies with Tsinghua University, said China would not choose to expand across the world as the US and the former Soviet Union did.

China Daily's Editor-in-Chief Zhu Ling (left) and Takashi Anzai, chairman of the board of Seven Bank Ltd, exchange views at the forum. [Xu Jingxing / China Daily]

He, however, warned of the shift of Japan's military attention to the Southwest toward China. Japan's National Defense Program Outline, scheduled to be finished this year, is highly dangerous, Liu said.

"That will draw China's unease toward Japan," he said. "This is the first such revision of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and I hope they do not choose the wrong direction."

Now there is noticeable imbalance between China and Japan over each other's military intention, Liu said.

"China used to believe Japan would become a strong military power. But we noticed the Chinese government changed its attitude after Shinzo Abe (former Japanese prime minister) took office," he said.

Li Wei, chief of Japanese studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said getting Tokyo to understand Beijing is not as difficult as getting the US to understand Beijing.

"Japan is a country that listens to others, unlike the US," she said.