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Japan out of step with its words

By WANG XU in Tokyo | China Daily | Updated: 2023-02-09 06:59

Aggressive path

On the military front, Tokyo has chosen an aggressive path, remilitarizing itself and inviting NATO and the US to meddle in East Asia, disregarding a balance of power that has kept the region in peace for more than 70 years.

In talks with US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg over the past few weeks, Kishida made no attempt to hide his ambition to vie for hegemony in Asia by putting on display an aggressive Japan committed to growing its military and with few qualms about using military might as a tool of statecraft.

Shigeki Nagayama, a law professor at Tokai University in Japan, said the Japanese government's move of welcoming other military blocs' involvement in the Asia-Pacific region is to enhance its own defense capability, and will only heighten the risk of instability in the Asia-Pacific.

"Japan's self-defense forces already conduct joint exercises and training with NATO countries and can integrate command and combat systems if needed," Nagayama said. "It has now become possible for NATO to intervene in East Asian affairs, which is bad for stability in the region and for Europe. It is very disturbing."

Japan's hostility toward China does not come without a hefty price. For one thing, economic ties between Beijing and Tokyo that have flourished in recent years are now showing signs of fraying. China Customs said that South Korea overtook Japan as the country's fourth-largest trading partner last year, with trade valued at $362 billion.

Wang said: "The semiconductor curbs could further hurt Japan's economy because after all it is a strategy of US corporate monopolies using apparent coercive means to maintain technological and economic superiority over its allies and independent states in the Global South.

"Washington does not care about slowing down global technology upgrades and economic development. It only cares about diverting the world away from global cooperation toward the US-favored realm, and in the process Japan's interests are not considered at all."

Another consequence is in the security sphere, because, despite domestic protests, Kishida is offering Tokyo to Washington as the bulwark of its security interests in Asia and the front line in a possible confrontation.

Yoichi Komori, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, said the US and NATO are using Japan as a shield in case of conflict.

"That's what the US and NATO want. It's very dangerous for Japan to give full play to its self-defense forces in East Asia, which is also contrary to Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. We, as the people, must not allow it."

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