personal view: the thing with japan is that after ww2 they got heavily disarmed ,they focused only on defensive military . Now ,after the Ukraine war and the problems they face with China(and north Korea) they decide to increase the military budget ,just like everybody else “if my neighbor is buying a gun ,shouldn’t I also have one ?” Everybody says that we are at the start of the second cold war ,I tend to belive it .
You can’t blame Japan for wanting to D up while China keeps acting belligerently
But if your neighbour is only buying guns because your “friend” (who hates your nbr) keeps putting his into your place - why should you get your own too? That will only lead to further escalation. Contrary, you should try to actually throw your friends guns out and reason with your neighbour.
Geez, you murder a shitload of people to the point even a prominent Nazi said you went too far, use women from occupied countries as sex slaves, conduct unethical experiments on prisoners, then decades later your ruling far-right party and its weirdo cult member politicians deny any of this ever happened…and everyone thinks remilitarizing your country is bad forever? SMH 🙄
On one hand, the upcoming arms race is concerning. On the other hand, Japan IS a part of “Russia is occupying our land” club.
I don’t think it’s about Russia at all for Japan. It’s about China and their recent escalations in Taiwan, south china sea and east china sea.
The only thing that really has to do with Russia is that they showed the world that near peer wars are still a thing and that China is a potential threat for all East Asia.
If they want to escape the US military they will need their own military.
