Actions speak louder than words and Tokyo cannot lull the world into forgetting: China Daily editorial

Historically, Japan's postwar Constitution has enforced a defense-oriented policy, restricting the possession of offensive military capabilities and prohibiting arms sales. However, recent developments indicate that the Sanae Takaichi government plans to abolish these constraints.

It approved a supplementary budget proposal on Friday for fiscal 2025 that will boost the country's defense spending to 2 percent of its GDP ahead of schedule. A move that comes following Takaichi's erroneous and dangerous remarks on China's Taiwan region and amid the broader trend of the country's military expansion.

That the Takaichi government is trying to realize the 2-percent goal this year, two years ahead of the 2027 target set in 2022, clearly reveals its eagerness to alter the strategic landscape of East Asia by bolstering Japan's military power.

But if Japan intends to realize the potential goal of spending 3.5 percent of its GDP on defense, as pressed by the United States, how its economy will be distorted in the future remains to be seen. Increasing military spending is detrimental to Japan's economic development and will further exacerbate its debt burden. Japan's finances are already strained; its national debt amounts to 263 percent of its GDP.

That the Japanese economy has been burdened by fast increasing defense spending since the Fumio Kishida government is a structural problem that the Takaichi government will have to resolve.

Japan also intends to export its Type 03 medium-range surface-to-air missile to the Philippines, as reported by Kyodo News, which has also sparked debates about the nation's evolving defense strategy and its implications for regional peace.

That public opinion is divided in Japan, with many concerned about the implications of a more militarized Japan and the potential for involvement in international conflicts, clearly shows the Japanese government is pushing the country in the direction of uncertainty while trying to remain ambiguous on some crucial issues.

As a spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out on Monday, Japan has repeatedly been vague about its position on Taiwan, avoiding any mention of the Potsdam Proclamation, the four political documents, and its political commitment to the one-China principle, and repeatedly seeks to deflect attention by claiming its "position remains unchanged". The Takaichi government won't fully reaffirm its commitments.

The Cairo Declaration is a major outcome of the World Anti-Fascist War. Adhering to the declaration's provisions is an international obligation that Japan bears, and a prerequisite for Japan's postwar recovery of international acceptance.

But the Takaichi government avoids mentioning these documents. Instead, it repeatedly brings up documents such as the so-called Treaty of San Francisco that China has never recognized. Clearly, the right-wing politicians in Japan, represented by Takaichi, are trying their best to break the country free from the postwar constraints imposed on the country. They have never truly learned from history and never truly faced up to, or reflected on the heinous crimes Japan committed against its neighbors.

China will observe its 12th national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre on Dec 13, commemorating the day in 1937 when invading Japanese troops captured Nanjing and began six weeks of slaughter that claimed the lives of more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers.

Last month, with the death of Tang Fulong, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, who passed away at the age of 90, the number of living registered survivors of the atrocity was only 24. Those in Japan set on a militarist course may welcome the declining number of witnesses to the country's crimes during its war of aggression, as they are attempting to use a narrative of amnesia to make the world forget its past aggression to facilitate freeing itself from the postwar constraints.

But while Japan's words are evasive and perfunctory, its actions are clear. Its approach cannot deceive the world. The Takaichi government should heed Beijing's urging that it deeply reflect on its actions and take seriously China's demand for an honest retraction of Takaichi's erroneous and dangerous remarks on the Taiwan question.

The Takaichi government should discard the illusion that it can get away with its responsibility on matters of principle, historical facts and human conscience.