The ceremony to showcase the 248-metre (810-feet) vessel came as Shinzo Abe’s conservative government, which took office last December, considers ditching the nation’s pacifist constitution and beefing up the military.
Japan plans to use the helicopter carrier, named Izumo and expected to go into service in 2015, to defend territorial claims following maritime skirmishes with China, which has demonstrated its own military ambitions in recent years.
“We express our concern at Japan’s constant expansion of its military equipment. This trend is worthy of high vigilance by Japan’s Asian neighbors and the international community,” China’s Defense Ministry told AFP.
“Japan should learn from history, adhere to its policy of self-defense and abide by its promise of taking the road of peaceful development.”
The unveiling ceremony took place on the 68th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, a date clash which Tokyo said was coincidental. The Japanese-built carrier can accommodate nine helicopters and is expected to play a major role in disaster and rescue missions, as well as defending sea lanes and sovereignty claims, according to the Defense Ministry.
The navy’s biggest vessels currently are a pair of smaller helicopter carriers.
Less than two weeks ago, the Chinese coastguard entered waters disputed with Japan for the first time, upping the ante in a festering row over ownership of the Senkaku islands, which Beijing also claims and calls the Diaoyus.
The rocky islands are located in rich fishing grounds in the East China Sea and are believed to harbour vast natural resources below their seabed.
The incursion came as Japan’s Defense Ministry recommended establishing amphibious units and acquiring surveillance drones, similar to the US Marines, to protect its claim on outlying islands.
Tokyo is also locked in a separate territorial dispute with Seoul.
Japan’s well-funded and well-equipped military is referred to as the Self-Defense Forces, and is barred from taking aggressive action. Any move to beef up the military would require constitutional change.
A possible overhaul of the constitution imposed on Japan by the United States and its allies after WWII has stirred strong emotions among Japan’s neighbors.
They have long maintained that Tokyo has never come to terms with its militaristic past, including the brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
The ceremony in Yokohama, attended by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, was held as tens of thousands gathered for remembrance ceremonies in Hiroshima to mark the 68th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the western Japanese city.
Tokyo said the jarring timing was coincidental and that Tuesday had been chosen because of favourable ocean tides and an auspicious date.
Last year, China commissioned its first aircraft carrier as part of a military build-up that has alarmed its own regional neighbors as Washington ramps up a focus on Asia.
The country’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, went into service in September in a symbolic milestone for China’s increasingly muscular military.
However, the vessel still requires a carrier group including destroyers, frigates and submarines while fighter jets need more training to be operational, according to navy officials.
China has also generated concern with double-digit rises in its annual defense budget, set at 10.7 percent for 2013, with experts saying their actual military spending is substantially higher than the publicized totals.
Japanese warships docked in New Zealand ‘s capital Friday for the first time in almost 90 years amid efforts by Tokyo to deepen its strategic ties in the South Pacific Ocean.
Two destroyers with more than 500 crew on board sailed into Wellington harbor accompanied by the New Zealand navy ship HMNZS Canterbury. The JS Ise and destroyer JS Suzunami were on an Indo-Pacific deployment and arrived from Sydney, where Japan’s military took part this month in war games involving New Zealand, Australia and other countries.
The Wellington visit was a ceremonial one, but it came as Japan, whose only treaty ally is the United States, has increasingly sought to deepen bilateral military cooperation amid ongoing regional tensions.
“Our defense force are developing cooperative work, not only with New Zealand and Australia but also many Pacific Island countries,” Japan’s envoy to Wellington, Makoto Osawa, told reporters Friday. “Our main goal is the free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The ambassador’s remarks followed the announcement Tuesday by Australia’s government that Japanese firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had won the bid for a contract to build Australian warships, beating out a German firm. While officials in Canberra said the Japanese proposal was the best and cheapest, they also hailed it as the biggest defense industry agreement between the countries.
New Zealand too has sought to shore up its strategic and military relations in Asia as part of a foreign policy reset in recent years that the government says has turned more attention on Pacific cooperation and security. Officials in Wellington announced in July that work had started on a defense logistics agreement with Japan, intended to make it easier for the countries’ militaries to work together.
Japanese naval vessels do not often make visits so far south in the Pacific Ocean, but the rich and strategically important waters of New Zealand, Australia and smaller Pacific Island countries are increasingly contested by the world’s major powers, making it the site of a fierce battle for influence between Beijing and Western nations.
Although remote, New Zealand has recently been drawn into more fraught questions of regional security. In February, live firing exercises by Chinese naval frigates in the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia drew alarm from those countries’ governments after flights were forced to divert at short notice.
The last port visit to Wellington by a Japanese naval vessel was in 1936, New Zealand’s military said. A Japanese ship visited New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, in 2016.