Russia warns about the militarization of Japan: Northeast Asia and America
Hiroshi Saito, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan endlessly focuses on militarization. It matters not that real wages have declined by 2.6 percent in one year under Kishida, roughly 70 percent of all coronavirus (Covid-19) deaths under his leadership, endless monthly trade deficits, and other ills. Instead, Kishida continues with his anti-China and anti-Russian Federation rhetoric – to boost his militarization plans.
Political elites in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), when meeting international politicians, are adept at being overtly polite. However, in the shadow is the hidden mantra of historical revisionism and militarization.
Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, warned, the Kishida administration is “rejecting the country’s peaceful development… (and) has embarked on the path of an unprecedented build-up of its military power, including strike potential.”
Zakharova continued that Japan is “returning to unlimited militarization, which will inevitably provoke new security challenges and exacerbate tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Reuters reports (last week), “Russia accused Japan on Thursday of abandoning decades of pacifist policy and embracing “unbridled militarization,” responding to a $320-billion defense plan announced by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week.”
China and other nations in Northeast Asia fully understand the historical reality of recent history. However, the government of President Joe Biden of America is intent on the increased militarization of Europe and Northeast Asia. Hence, Biden fully supports the militarization of Japan.
The one thing that binds the majority of politicians in both parties in America is war and defense spending. Thus, only a handful of individuals in the Senate opposed authorizing the enormous $858 billion military budget planned for next year concerning moral grounds.
Sarcastically – but based on economic facts given the enormous debt mountain in Japan. Zakharova said Japan is ramping up its military budget by as much as 2% of its GDP “…amid a less than satisfactory situation in the national economy and the growing structural imbalances in the country’s state budget...This only reinforces the assessment that the Kishida government is prepared to go much further in achieving its military ambitions than the plans they announced, and to get tightly integrated into the US geopolitical games.”
Sanae Takaichi, the Economic Security Minister, is part of the rightist trend within the body politic of the ruling LDP. In the internal LDP election in 2021, it is worth remembering that Takaichi came second concerning Diet member votes.
This points to the mounting nationalism within the ruling LDP. After all, Takaichi opposes the Murayama Statement that clarifies the war crimes committed by Japan during the war, denies Comfort Women being forced into sexual slavery, took a picture with a holocaust denier (Kazunari Yamada), and utilizes the Yasukuni Shrine openly in league with her nationalist tendencies. Hence, for Takaichi to come second in the Diet voting ballot last year – highlights the rise of nationalism within the ruling LDP.
America – similar to supporting right-wing death squads during Operation Condor in South America and supplying military arms to international jihadists in Afghanistan in the 1980s: is apt at turning a blind eye when needed. However, for Northeast Asia, the militarization of Japan will lead to increased military spending throughout this part of the world.
Japan currently holds the highest ratio of debt of any developed nation. Hence, this highlights the nationalist and military tendencies of the Kishida administration. After all, the late former leader Shinzo Abe was open to cordial relations with the Russian Federation.
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