Japan's navy chief urges resumption of China port visits

Indeed Japan's participation may not be the same declared "patrol in your face" as the USN is conducting. However simply transiting an area that is illegally claimed by China to be it's "sovereign waters since ancient times" is sufficient to be a challenge to that claim. To that end, JMSDF transits to he Philippines and Vietnam which have already taken place did "trespass" from China's point of view. The idea of a naval exchange program is naturally a good one to increase contact and minimize the chances of conflict. However, Japan will find out that China will "cancel visits" whenever it feels miffed by something politically, as it has done to the United States in the past.

The head of Japan’s navy on Monday repeated criticisms of China’s pursuit of territorial claims in Asia but called for a resumption of port and personnel visits

If he really wanted a resumption of visits, would he have criticised China?

Haha, Japan's stance keeps changing everyday while China is just looking at them at a stationary point of view.

Plain double talk by an American echo.

China should not waste time with Tokyo and instead shift attention to North Korea and improve economic and military ties to a T!<>

Er? "Japan's navy"? Despite a warmongering, belligerent prime minister, I believe Japan's naval protection forces are still called the "Maritime Self-defense forces"! Why not just add "Imperial" and complete the circle?

PSandozSep. 27, 2016 - 07:51PM JST Er? "Japan's navy"? Despite a warmongering, belligerent prime minister,...

What countries are Japan bombing right now? Where are they building artificial islands and claiming vast stretches of international waters as theirs? How many nuclear bomb tests and ICBM launches have they carried out? I think you need to look up "warmongering" before using that term.