The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a new phrase to characterize its policy for dealing with territorial tensions with China: strategic patience.

The term was introduced to an audience in Tokyo earlier this week by Shotaro Yachi, a former top foreign ministry official who is now the prime minister's key diplomatic policy adviser.

According to Mr. Yachi, strategic patience means Japan "will refrain from responding emotionally" to provocations by Beijing - namely the continued incursion of official Chinese ships into the waters around East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. Under the policy, Japan won't engage in acts of unnecessary provocation either, Mr. Yachi added.

"China is our neighbor and neither of us can move away from each other," Mr. Yachi said in a speech on Monday at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, attended by students, scholars and diplomats. "With an eye toward building a sound relationship for the future, for our children and grandchildren, I think we should pursue the stance of strategic patience."

The definition of patience, however, depends on the viewpoint. Blaming Japan for escalating bilateral tensions, Chinese media have been closely covering ongoing military exercises by Japanese troops involving an amphibious landing drill on an uninhabited island in Okinawa, not unlike the islands at the center of the territorial dispute. The disputed islands are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.