Japan warned of playing ‘Taiwan card’ to rationalize defense spending boost

At a time of tensions in the Taiwan Straits after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan island, Japan has not only failed to maintain regional stability, but instead issued erroneous statements on the Taiwan question. In this regard, observers warned there is a growing dangerous perception within the Japanese government that “a Taiwan emergency is an emergency for Japan.”

Sanae Takaichi, policy chief of the Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who cited the deceased former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s infamous remark “a Taiwan emergency is an emergency for Japan,” tweeted on Friday that China’s military exercises around Taiwan island have made many people realize the emergency. She claimed that if tensions escalate, Japan will undoubtedly enter the “battlefield.”

Takaichi is using her tough rhetoric to make more political capital and win more support from conservatives in the hope that her situation would not be bad if she has to step down after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s upcoming cabinet reshuffle, Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

If an emergency situation really happens in Japan, the Japanese government may not be able to protect the safety of its own people, Yasukatsu Matsushima, a scholar and political activist from Okinawa, told the Global Times on Saturday.

“If the ‘what happens to Taiwan’ affects Okinawa, I don’t think the Japanese government will protect the people here at all,” he said, noting that anger is growing in Okinawa over the “risky” nature of Pelosi’s provocation.

The Japanese government is taking advantage of the Taiwan question to smear and demonize China and stir up the so-called China threat theory to lay a public opinion foundation for boosting defense spending and amending the pacifist constitution,” Da pointed out.