Japan took aim on Tuesday at what it called “profoundly dangerous” Chinese efforts to exert control of waters between the two countries, condemning in its annual defence white paper last November’s declaration of a Chinese air defence zone over much of the East China Sea, including a group of disputed islands.

The yearly defence review was the second published by the government of Shinzo Abe, the conservative prime minister who is seeking to loosen constraints on the Japanese military that were imposed after the second world war.

The Abe government’s tough language on China, while not new, could frustrate Mr Abe’s efforts to meet Xi Jinping, China’s president, and to turn round one of the more bitter periods in Japan-China relations since the end of the war.