The Indo-Pacific region has become the real newsmaker of the 21st century. The rise of China has not been very harmonious and more so recently. As Beijing continued to irritate & intimidate its neighbours, Japan is finding it difficult to continue being a pacifist power. As Beijing is not respecting Japanese concerns and only expects Tokyo to remain a docile power, Japan has come out of the ghost of pacifism openly. Thus, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga, following in the footsteps of Shinzo Abe has sent offerings to the controversial Yoshikuni Shrine of war dead to coincide with its autumn festival.
The previous PM Shinzo Abe used the same practice of sending offerings to the shrine via an aid so that the Chinese and South Koreans do not get angry. Abe-san has visited the Yasukuni shrine twice since leaving office. The latest visit was on the 19th of October where he told reporters that “I visited the shrine to show my sincere respect to the spirits of the war dead.” His visit is just days after current PM Yoshihide Suga sent his ritual offerings of a “masakaki” tree to celebrate the Shinto shrine’s biannual festival.
These visits have shown that Japanese leaders no longer care for the emotions of Communist China. The emotions being, Tokyo will not be burdened to forever be a docile nation in the face of China by continuously compromising Japanese sovereignty in the East China Sea’s Senkaku Islands among other issues.
Read More: China is forcing Japan to scrap post World War-II pacifism and Xi Jinping will pay a heavy price
Japan has followed many other steps which signal a resolute move away from the past pacifism. The proactive foreign policy of Shinzo Abe was a move away from pacifism, but, it was only limited to the realm of International Relations. However, since coming to the office, Suga san has taken many steps which move beyond the legislations and perceptions. He has been building on the legacy of Abe-san.
The military build-up has accelerated, Japan has started the conversion of the helicopter carrier JS Izumo into a light aircraft carrier. After these upgrades, the ship will be able to accommodate Japan’s new F-35B Lightning fighter jets. This is the first upgrade in the last 75 years of Japanese military history and Tokyo is looking to convert other helicopter carriers soon. Japan has also launched first of its new class of Submarines, Taigei (big whale) a diesel-electric shoryu class submarine. It has also started works to develop its 5th generation fighter jets.
These military developments are a testimony of Japan moving away from the shackles of pacifism towards being a proud and powerful nation that Japan once was, and where it deserves to be as a leading economic power of 21st century.
These military developments have been coupled with creating promising military alliances. The recent inclusion of Australia into the India-led MALABAR naval exercise has confirmed the formalization of QUAD as a military alliance.
Read more: The Quad turns into a military alliance as India invites Australia to the Malabar Exercise
Japan has also signed one of a kind military agreement with Australia, which allows Japanese SDF to come to the defence of Australia if it is under attack, an agreement which Japan had signed only with the USA. In addition to that, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is visiting Indonesia next after signing a military & weapons agreement with Vietnam.
Read more: Vietnam has become the Quad’s official anti-China Ops Headquarters
The Yoshikuni Shrine is controversial as it pays homage to all the Japanese WW2 soldiers including the 14 officers who were punished for war crimes by the Post-War tribunal. However, with the frequency of visits by Japanese Prime Ministers of past increasing and the current Prime Minister sending tributes are obvious signals that Japan will no longer be dragged for the crimes of the past generations.
Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which stated that Japan will not have any conventional military and will give up war for all the times has been diluted extensively by PM Shinzo Abe. Under the current leadership of PM Yoshihide Suga, Tokyo has shunned any semblance of pacifism and is taking forward the Abe doctrine of proactive foreign policy into other realms too.
Japan, now has resolved itself towards taking a leadership role in Indo-Pacific in partnership with India, the USA and Australia. It has moved beyond pacifism and Article 9 remains only in name. Xi Jinping and China should be extremely scared as they no longer can denigrate Japanese with the surety of no consequences. China has been boxed in a corner and unlike the paper dragon this time the real Dragon has woken up.