Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi Tuesday took two new steps towards the militarization of Japan, sparking a stiff denunciation from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Takaichi lifted a longstanding ban on the export of lethal weapons from Japan, and sent an offering to the Yasukuni Shrine, which is a target of anti-military forces in Japan, because several convicted war criminals are buried there along with other soldiers.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun, in the Tuesday press briefing, denounced these moves, linking them to other militarist steps by Takaichi. As reported in Global Times, Guo poised several questions to the Japan government: “With the massive increase in military budget, the deployment of intermediate-range offensive missiles, relaxed restrictions on weapon export, proposed revision of its pacifist Constitution and the idea of abandoning the three non-nuclear principles, how can Japan profess itself as a ‘peace-loving country’?” He added: “What’s Japan really up to?”
The “three non-nuclear principles,” which Takaichi brought into question in November soon after becoming the PM, are “not to possess, produce, or introduce nuclear weapons into its territory.” This is one of the fundamental parts of the post war Constitutional policy of Japan that the country would never go to war unless invaded and would not militarize the economy. These measures have been weakened over time, and Takaichi (and other conservative Japanese leaders) have called for changing the Constitution, claiming that Japan should become a “normal country.”
