China media criticises Japan Defense Agency plans

BEIJING, June 12 (Reuters) A Chinese state newspaper has criticised Japan's plans to upgrade its Defense Agency into a fully fledged ministry, calling the move a step in the wrong direction.

Changing the Agency's status would make a mockery of Japan's pacifist post-World War Two constitution, said an editorial in the state-run China Daily.

''The upgrading of Japan's Defence Agency is not merely a change of name, it is a display of ambition,'' the newspaper said.

''Japan's neighbours have every right to ask what direction this increasingly militarised nation is headed in.'' Granting Defence Ministry status could further irritate relations between China and Japan, which have deteriorated since Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001 and began annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine for war dead.

Beijing sees the shrine as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism, when it invaded and occupied parts of China from 1931 to 1945.

Japan is expected to submit the bill to upgrade the Defense Agency to an extraordinary parliamentary session later this year, in legislation that is part of moves by the government to regularise the status of its armed forces.

REUTERS MA RAI0911