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By Ding Duo<\/p>\n
On May 6, Japan fired Type 88\u00a0in the joint military exercise\u00a0“Balikatan”\u00a0between the U.S.\u00a0and the Philippines, the first time Japan launched\u00a0offensive missiles overseas after World War II.<\/p>\n
More troubling still, the Japanese government took\u00a0advantage of the joint drill\u00a0as cover to\u00a0formally revise\u00a0its\u00a0“three principles on transfer of defense equipment and technology” and their implementation guidelines, dramatically loosening restrictions on arms exports to the point where, in principle, nearly\u00a0all defense equipment can now be transferred overseas.<\/p>\n
Cloaked in rhetoric about a “severe security environment” and “mutual support among partner countries,” the move effectively hollowed out Japan’s longstanding limits on weapons exports.<\/p>\n
Recently, the Japanese government also convened its first expert panel meeting to discuss revisions to the three key security documents. At the meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi went so far as to claim that revising the documents was work that would determine the future of the Japanese nation, calling on Japan to prepare for “new ways of warfare” and even for “protracted warfare.”<\/p>\n
Such remarks completely stripped away the facade of Japan’s so-called “exclusively defense-oriented policy” and laid bare the adventurist ambitions of what can only be described as a “neo-militarism.”<\/p>\n
These dangerous developments once again show that Japan’s right-wing forces are accelerating the country’s remilitarization process. The push toward “neo-militarism” is no isolated phenomenon. Rather, it is part of a deliberate and organized effort to break through the postwar peace framework, with potentially grave consequences.<\/p>\n
First, these actions undermine the postwar international order.<\/p>\n
The UN Charter and Article 9 of Japan’s constitution both impose\u00a0clear constraints on Japan’s military development. Yet today, Japan\u00a0is steadily dismantling those restraints and reducing them to little more than empty words. The international community must remain vigilant: will Japan repeat its historical\u00a0mistakes\u00a0and once again become a source of instability in East Asia?<\/p>\n
Second, Japan’s military adventurism is emboldening right-wing forces.<\/p>\n
As the country continues down this path, rational anti-war voices are increasingly sidelined\u00a0while militarist thinking resurfaces. This trend poses a deep and lasting threat to regional peace. As thoughtful voices within Japan have warned, “to forget the wounds of war is to plant the seeds of future disasters.”<\/p>\n
Third, Japan’s actions are undermining regional peace and stability.<\/p>\n
Japan\u00a0has repeatedly deepened military coordination with certain regional countries while expanding cross-regional cooperation with NATO. In doing so, it continues to inject instability into East Asia, raising\u00a0the risks of confrontation and conflict and seriously damaging the broader environment for regional peace.<\/p>\n