BEIJING: When asked to comment on the fact that Takaichi administration’s plan to revise the Constitution has been met with widespread opposition in Japan, which is witnessing the largest antiwar protests in decades, sentiments like fear, worry, alarm and anger are playing out on the streets, and also media commentary says revising Article 9 of the Constitution will rock Japan’s identity as a “pacifist nation” and divide the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday that all peace-loving nations and Japanese people should reject the remilitarization scheme of Japan’s right-wing forces, and stem the rise of Japan’s neo-militarism.
Guo noted that history is a mirror. In the first half of the 20th century, people in Japan witnessed how their country marched to militarism step by step and degenerated into a war machine. They too suffered from the war Japan waged and know better than anyone the meaning of Japan’s commitment to forever renounce war.
Today, however, the Takaichi administration seems ready to abandon pacifism, which is the fundamental prerequisite for Japan to be readmitted to the international community, and tear up the pacifist identity cherished by generations in Japan, the spokesperson said.
By rearming Japan and breaching the pacifist Constitution and stipulations in international and domestic laws, are Japan’s right-wing forces trying to turn Japan into a country for war? Or to bring war back to the Asia Pacific? Using self-defense and “external threat” as pretexts, Japan’s right-wing forces are gambling with the livelihoods of the Japanese people and jeopardizing peace and stability in the Asia Pacific, the spokesperson added.
Guo said that the largest antiwar protests in decades show that people across Japan are increasingly aware that to reembark on the road of militarism is a doomed path.
A “no war” sentiment has been growing louder across Japan in recent months, written on the posters at some of the country’s largest protests in at least a decade, The New York Times reported. They oppose Takaichi’s push to steer the nation away from its decades-long pacifist identity.
Already on Tuesday, Guo said during the press conference that the “gray rhino” of Japan’s remilitarization is running toward us in response to a media inquiry about Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi remaining unwilling to retract what she said on Taiwan region last November, while China has been amplifying criticism of Japan’s neo-militarism.
Global Times
