Japan will deploy a new radar to monitor Chinese military activity amid growing concern in Tokyo over Beijing's arms buildup, a news report said on Monday.
The Defense Agency will deploy the radar on the Miyako islands in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, close to territory claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun reported in its evening edition.
Data from the new radar will let Tokyo determine the capabilities and flight patterns of Chinese military planes, and develop ways to block Chinese radars from picking up Japanese waves, the Yomiuri said.
Defense officials said they could not immediately comment on the report. The Miyako islands are about 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) southwest of Tokyo and about 180 kilometers (112 miles) east of islets claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, called the Senkakus in Japanese and Daioyu in Chinese.
Japan's existing radars are concentrated in the north of the country, where they mainly pick up radio waves from Russia, according to the Yomiuri.
But Tokyo is increasingly shifting its focus to China, which has raised concern in Tokyo after announcing double-digit spending increases for its 2.5 million-member military nearly every year since the early 1990s.
Japan's Defense Agency lists China's military expansion as a top security concern in the region, and Foreign Minister Taro Aso has repeatedly called China a threat _ drawing angry protests from Beijing.
Earlier this year, Tokyo reported a dramatic increase in the number of times its fighter jets have scrambled to intercept suspected Chinese spy planes approaching Japanese air space.
Though linked by billions of dollars (euros) in trade, relations between the two neighbors are rocky over a spate of disputes over territory, undersea gas and oil deposits, and former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine criticized for its strong links to past Japanese militarism.
Koizumi's successor Shinzo Abe visited China last month and has pledged to mend relations with Beijing.