BEIJING: China said on Tuesday it hopes Japan will continue its peaceful post-war policies despite launching its first full-fledged defence ministry since World War II.

“We feel that if Japan maintains its direction of peaceful development, it is in line with Japan’s own basic interests,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular press briefing.

“We also hope that whatever structural changes Japan makes it can continue on the path of peaceful development.” Japan on Tuesday formally upgraded its post-World War II defence agency to a cabinet-level defence ministry as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to build a more assertive nation.

Any sign of a more militaristic Japan stirs unease in China, which was devastated by Japan’s 1931 invasion of China and subsequent long war of conquest that killed millions of Chinese.

State-run Xinhua news agency said the step threatened to remove civilian control of Japan’s Self-Defence Force and could upset the “regional equilibrium”.

“Japan’s military build-up is bound to cause its Asian neighbours -- who suffered enormously from its aggression during World War II -- to worry and to be more vigilant,” it said.—AFP