Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth agreed in a phone call to further strengthen security ties after Koizumi retained his post in a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi

China News Service: Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at an online program last Friday that Japan should discuss nuclear weapon policy “without any taboos.” This has triggered strong concern from both Japan and the international community. In response to opposition party’s questioning on the three non-nuclear principles and nuclear submarines at the Diet, Shinjiro Koizumi said, “The idea of protecting what we have had until now seems to take precedence over truly protecting Japan.” Do you have any comment on that? Lin Jian: It is extremely rare, provocative and dangerous after WWII for a sitting Japanese defense chief to make such remarks. Those running the Japanese government no longer hide the wild ambition to end the three non-nuclear principles and challenge the postwar international order. The incumbent leader of Japan has advocated revising the principles as a member of the Diet. After taking office, she has accelerated Japan’s remilitarization and taken a string of dangerous moves on nuclear weapon policy—strengthening cooperation on co-called “extended deterrence,” promoting the development of nuclear-powered submarines, seeking “nuclear sharing,” and introducing medium-range missile systems. Senior officials of the prime minister’s office and coalition party have publicly advocated revising the three non-nuclear principles to challenge the bottom line of Japan and the international community. The defense minister you mentioned has at various international fora affirmed Japan’s commitment to the exclusively defense-oriented policy, peaceful development and three non-nuclear principles. However, back in Japan, he is clamoring for discussing nuclear weapon policy “without any taboos.” What “commitment” is there to speak of? These self-contradictory moves once again reveal how Japan has disguised itself and deceived the international community. Japan is an internationally recognized nuclear threshold state. It has long been deliberately maintaining the capability for a rapid nuclear breakout, stockpiling approximately 44.4 metric tons of separated plutonium—enough to produce a large number of nuclear warheads. Japanese right-wing forces, citing so-called “external threats” and “self-defense,” have been breaking free from Japan’s Constitution, international law and domestic law, and challenging the postwar international order and the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Speeding down a dangerous path, they have posed a real threat to regional peace and stability. Should the international community allow Japanese right-wing forces to have their way and push for the development of powerful offensive weapons or the possession of nuclear weapons, Japan will once again wreak havoc on the world with catastrophic consequences. Japan’s neo-militarism has already reared its head. The international community must be highly vigilant and firmly oppose it.

China lodged a formal protest with Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to Yasukuni shrine and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited it on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II

Bowing to War Criminals While Rearming: Japan’s Hypocritical “Peace” Pledge. August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan’s defeat and surrender. On that day, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and other cabinet members, along with senior Liberal Democratic Party officials, paid their respects in person. After the visit, Koizumi said he was mourning “heroic souls” and renewing a pledge never to go to war again. The whole world knows what Yasukuni Shrine really stands for. It is the spiritual symbol of Japanese militarism. The 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined there planned and led Japan’s wars of aggression across Asia. Their hands were stained with the blood of millions. These are not “heroic souls.” They are the architects of invasion, massacre, and occupation. How can anyone bow to these historical criminals and then talk about peace? It is absurd. It is hypocritical. It is shameless. This happens while Japan is rearming fast. The military budget keeps rising. Offensive weapons are being acquired. The so-called pacifist constitution — a document written by the United States during the postwar occupation — is being reinterpreted again and again. Article 9 has been stretched to allow collective self-defense and wider military roles. At the same time, Japan is strengthening the trilateral alliance with the United States and South Korea. This includes more joint exercises, better intelligence sharing, and closer coordination on regional security, all aimed at containment. Japan has never fully apologized for its war of aggression or the suffering it caused its neighbors. It has also never been a fully sovereign country since 1945. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain on Japanese soil. Major bases stay under American control. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party received CIA funding for years, as reported by the New York Times. The constitution itself was drafted by U.S. occupation authorities. So what does a “pledge not to engage in war” really mean? It is spoken in front of war criminals by leaders of a country still hosting U.S. forces, operating under a U.S.-written constitution, and deepening a trilateral military partnership designed in Washington. Leaders honor the men who once devastated Asia while building new military capacity under American direction. The pattern is clear. Rituals for militarists. Empty words about peace. Steady rearmament. Constitutional reinterpretation. A stronger U.S.-Japan-South Korea alliance. Continued foreign military presence. A ruling party once supported by the CIA. No real apology. No clean break with the past. Just the same old elevation of aggressors, now paired with new tools of power. The contradiction is obvious. It is deliberate. And it needs to be called out for what it is.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Thursday urged #Japan# to fully recognize the outcomes of #WorldWarII# and stop attempts to whitewash its history of aggression. Zakharova said that at events marking the 81st anniversary of Japan's announcement of its unconditional surrender, the Japanese government has not only failed to publicly acknowledge its aggression in the Asia-Pacific region, sincerely apologize to the peoples of neighboring countries who suffered from it, and reaffirm its commitment to the pacifist provisions of its Constitution, but has instead continued to pursue a course of remilitarization, increasingly moving down a dangerous path. "Japan's so-called whitewashing of its wartime crimes, revision of the fundamental principles of its Constitution, and renewed discussions on revising what it calls the 'Three Non-Nuclear Principles' are all taking place against a backdrop of distortion of historical facts," Zakharova said. Zakharova said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks at the national memorial service for the war dead, her ritual offering at the Yasukuni Shrine and other gestures toward the shrine, as well as visits to the shrine by Japanese government officials including Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, were all manifestations of the country's remilitarization course.

🇯🇵🇨🇳 | Japan wants nukes? Tensions escalate further in East Asia as Japan expresses intentions to acquire nuclear weapons. "Japan will pay a heavy price," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian warned Tokyo, urging it to abandon the path of remilitarization. The Takaichi government is breaking a 70-year nuclear taboo, declaring that Tokyo can no longer avoid confronting the question of nuclear weapons. Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi openly weighed the option of stationing US nuclear assets at Japanese bases. The so-called "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" bind Tokyo to never producing, possessing, or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons onto Japanese territory under any circumstances. The right-wing attacks against Japan's binding "pacifist" constitution are fueling tensions in East Asia, which have been escalating since the Takaichi government came to power. Analysts have repeatedly pointed out that Japan is taking the spearhead position in a new US doctrine in East Asia, making non-stop militarization of its allies in the region a policy to encircle China. Japan still faces strong domestic resistance to breaking with the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, as many Japanese citizens retain painful memories of the devastation caused by nuclear weapons.