Japan is revising it's defense planning to take into account the growing military threat from China. A growing Chinese fleet, and a modernized Chinese air force, threaten Japan's critical access to the sea. Japan is expected to officially recognize this threat soon, and begin changing the composition of its own armed forces to deal with it. Currently, Japan's population of 127 million produces a GNP six times that of China, and has 240,000 troops on duty. Defense spending is about $44 billion a year, about 80 percent of what China spends on nearly ten times the number of troops.