Japan has repeated its territorial claim over South Korea’s Dokdo islets in its defense white paper for the eighth year running.

The Japanese government announced the 2012 defense white paper on Tuesday after approving it in a Cabinet meeting.

Japan said in the introduction of this year's report that the issues of the Northern Territories and Takeshima remain unresolved. Japan refers to the Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands as the Northern Territories, which are the bone of its territorial contention with Russia. Takeshima is the Japanese name for Dokdo.

The Japanese government has listed Dokdo as its territory in its defense white paper since 2005. Japan’s Defense Ministry also described Dokdo as Takeshima on a map of Japan’s sovereign territory this year as it did last year.