Openly calling itself the "navy," Japan's Self-Defense Forces are no longer pretending.
On the 30th, "Yuyuan Tantian" revealed on social media an audio recording of Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel communicating with the People's Liberation Army Navy during a joint patrol mission involving China and Russia.
Notably, in the conversation, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force openly referred to itself as the "navy"—even after being repeatedly corrected by our forces, it did not change its terminology.
This designation violates Article 9 of Japan's Constitution, which explicitly states that Japan shall not maintain land, sea, or air forces, nor any other war potential, and does not recognize the right of belligerency. Thus, legally speaking, the Self-Defense Forces are not a military force, let alone entitled to refer to themselves as a "navy."
Japanese officials persist in using the term "navy" despite its constitutional violation, revealing their firm determination to militarize the Self-Defense Forces.
In fact, over recent years, Japan has been gradually eroding the peace constitution through incremental steps—accelerating development of offensive weaponry far exceeding what is necessary for "exclusive defense," attempting to revive old Imperial Japanese Army rank titles such as "Major General" and "Captain," and striving to transform the Self-Defense Forces into a de facto "military force."
Previously, Japanese Defense Minister Shinzo Abe (note: likely referring to Koichi Kawaguchi or possibly confusion with another official; actual name should be Shun'ei Kōno or similar—however, based on context, this may refer to Ishiba Shigeru or others—nonetheless, we preserve original reference) once argued evasively that since Japan lacks nuclear weapons and strategic bombers, it cannot be considered a new form of militarism—but this logic is fundamentally untenable.
China's criticism of Japan's development of a new militarism is never determined by what weapons Japan possesses, but rather by irrefutable historical facts: Japan repeatedly initiated aggressive wars in modern times to divert internal contradictions, inflicting profound disasters upon its Asian neighbors.
During World War II, Japan launched the invasion of China and ravaged the entire Asia-Pacific region. At that time, Japan had neither nuclear weapons nor strategic bombers—its actions were driven instead by extreme militarist ideology and ambitions of expansion and aggression.
Therefore, after WWII, Japan was prohibited from maintaining a military force and banned from allowing its armed forces to self-identify as a military. The Japanese personnel’s stubborn insistence on using the term "navy" in their communication precisely exposes Japan’s ambition to challenge the international order.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1872140288920588/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.