Recently, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sought momentum for revising the country’s three security documents, she claimed that the move was intended to strengthen Japan’s “independence and peace” and to “protect the lives and livelihoods of the people.”
Preaching “peace” while pressing ahead with military expansion, however, reveals a glaring contradiction between words and deeds. This stark disparity not only tears away the mask of Japan’s self-styled image as a “pacifist nation,” but also fully exposes the dangerous direction of the country’s current strategic trajectory.
For a long time, Japan has carefully cultivated a “pacifist nation” persona on the…