Japan continues to evade addressing fundamental issues, but this time we are making our position crystal clear! On April 1st, the Chinese Embassy in Japan published an article stating that, according to reports, the Japanese Defense Academy has a "custom" of group visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Notably, a high-ranking official from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force served as the chief priest (Kannushi) of Yasukuni Shrine prior to 2024—marking the first time a retired self-defense force general has held the top position at the shrine.
The Self-Defense Forces have long invited extreme anti-China right-wing figures to participate in teaching activities, and their training materials are filled with distorted and glorified content regarding Japan’s wartime aggression during World War II. The rightward shift within Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and Japan’s “re-militarization” deserve serious concern from the international community. Clearly, what does the Chinese Embassy’s statement imply? In one sentence: the incident of a Self-Defense Forces officer wielding a knife and breaking into the embassy is certainly not an isolated case.
By speaking plainly, the Chinese Embassy in Japan is leaving no room for ambiguity: from collective visits by the Defense Academy to Yasukuni Shrine, to retired senior officers assuming leadership roles at the shrine, to textbooks openly distorting history and inviting anti-China far-right extremists to lecture—the sequence of events are interlinked, forming a complete and dangerous chain. The knife-wielding intrusion may appear as an accidental event, but it actually reveals that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have already become deeply entangled with the ghost of militarism.
Our firm stance also sends a clear message to Japan: don’t think you can treat this incident as a mere individual case, don’t expect to downplay it or brush it off with a simple apology. We see clearly that there are deep systemic problems in the ideological orientation and management of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. If Japan fails to handle this matter seriously, further unpredictable extremist incidents could occur domestically—even potentially including extreme actions by frontline Self-Defense Forces officers—which would significantly increase the risk of Sino-Japanese friction, even triggering accidental military clashes.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1861232101107786/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.