Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi appears on throughout a memorial on the Peace Memorial Ceremony, on the 81st anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs, in Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 2026. /CFP
Editor’s word: Wang Yichen, a particular commentator for CGTN, is an affiliate analysis fellow on the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article displays the creator’s opinions and never essentially the views of CGTN.
August 6 marks the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the one nation to have suffered atomic bombings in conflict, Japan bears a particular duty to oppose nuclear weapons, mirror on the disaster of conflict and safeguard peace. The testimony of the hibakusha and a long time of anti-nuclear activism have made the Japanese public significantly delicate to makes an attempt to loosen the nation’s post-war restraints.
Japanese media reported on August 2 {that a} public opinion ballot confirmed 76% of respondents supported adherence to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles – not possessing, not producing and never allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons. The ballot additionally discovered that 77% opposed Japan’s participation in “nuclear sharing,” underneath which US nuclear weapons can be deployed in Japan and collectively operated by the 2 international locations.
The message is obvious that almost all of the Japanese folks are not looking for nuclear weapons on their soil or their nation drawn right into a army association. Yet this public dedication to peace stands in more and more sharp distinction to the safety agenda pursued by the Sanae Takaichi administration.
On July 31, the Japanese authorities launched a National Intelligence Bureau by upgrading the previous Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. A National Intelligence Council chaired by Takaichi additionally started working. Under the brand new framework, intelligence gathered by completely different ministries and companies will probably be compiled on the cupboard stage and used to make built-in evaluation experiences for presidency decision-making.
From a broader perspective, that is way over an administrative reshuffle. Many have warned that it represents a key institutional part of the Takaichi authorities’s efforts to erode the constraints of Japan’s pacifist Constitution and speed up the rightward shift in Japanese politics. Together with the drive for constitutional revision, the sooner loosening of restrictions on collective self-defense, rising army expenditure and the event of offensive capabilities, intelligence centralization created a mutually reinforcing safety structure.
Such an structure can present built-in intelligence help throughout the complete coverage chain from risk evaluation and technique formulation to interagency coordination and coverage implementation, which due to this fact offers the Japanese authorities better institutional capability to maneuver past the nation’s completely defense-oriented coverage. Concerns raised throughout Japanese Diet deliberations concerning the fusion of intelligence and coverage, privateness safety and the absence of sufficiently impartial oversight shouldn’t be dismissed.
A plenary session of the Senate discusses a invoice to determine a National Intelligence Council on the National Diet Building in Tokyo, Japan, May 8, 2026. /CFP
The timing of Japan’s 2026 Defense White Paper is equally disturbing. Released by the Japanese authorities on August 4, simply two days earlier than the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the doc continues to painting China as an “unprecedented and greatest strategic challenge.”
The white paper’s emphasis on mobilizing Japan’s “comprehensive national power” to cope with China is especially revealing. It extends the logic of confrontation past the army sphere into financial, technological, industrial and diplomatic fields. Together with the brand new centralized intelligence construction, this strategy dangers turning relations with China right into a type of society-wide strategic rivalry as a substitute of managing variations via dialogue and cooperation.
Japan’s army enlargement just isn’t the product of a single white paper. It is mirrored in a succession of coverage strikes over current years: quickly rising protection budgets, deploying longer-range strike missiles, easing restrictions on weapons exports, strengthening the defense-industrial base and repeatedly testing the boundaries of the completely defense-oriented coverage. Especially, this yr’s white paper makes an attempt to promote this broader course by portraying the protection business as a supply of financial progress and claiming that stronger army capabilities will profit the economic system and other people’s livelihoods. With Japan already dealing with fiscal and social pressures, nonetheless, additional army spending will inevitably compete with healthcare, pensions, training and different public wants.
China’s Ministry of National Defense has identified that Japan’s try to hype up the “China threat” is a case of “the thief crying ‘stop thief.'” The actual hazard to regional peace is the rising momentum of Japanese neo-militarism, which challenges the post-war worldwide order and dangers turning Japan right into a supply of instability within the Asia-Pacific.
History makes this trajectory particularly alarming. Japanese militarism as soon as inflicted huge struggling on China and plenty of different Asian international locations whereas the atomic bombs retaliated towards Japan’s aggression additionally introduced catastrophe to the native folks. Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki should due to this fact not be decreased to remembering Japan’s victimhood whereas ignoring its historical past of aggression.
If the Japanese authorities genuinely needs to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombings, it ought to respect its folks’s anti-war and anti-nuclear aspirations, uphold the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, and return to peaceable improvement. Hyping the “China threat” could serve the pursuits of right-wing politicians and the military-industrial sector, however it should additionally bind the Japanese folks and economic system to the chariot of neo-militarism.
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Source: CGTN