opinion

On March 28, the budget for 2024 was approved by a majority of the ruling party and others at the full-dress session of the House of Councilors in Japan. On the basis of it, Japan will accelerate the development and deployment of new-type missiles, the building of warships with Aegis on board and import of latest weapons and equipment.

Over the past decade Japan's military spending has continuously been increasing, renewing its records.

The military expenditure for 2024 was also a record high.

The military spending which increased year on year has fuelled growing public discontent.

The government is faced with a barrage of protest and denunciations from the people of all social standings. They say that “though the citizens are forced to lead a hard life due to price hike, the defense expenditure rises to an astronomical amount” and ask “who would believe it, however hard they say Japan is not a military power, if it ranks third in the world in military expenditure” and “if they have already forgotten the lesson of Japan’s past”.

It is a well-known fact that Japan, a war criminal state in the Second World War, has never broken with the militarist past, but has been running headlong toward military resurgence. In the past it pursued the policy stealthily while talking about "peace", but now it has become trickier to do it openly and recklessly.

In recent years alone, it has drastically adjusted the "security policy" and steadily eased the restrictions on arms export to seek radical development of its military capabilities.

It positively welcomed the organization of "AUKUS" (US, UK and Australia) which has a serious impact on regional peace and security balance and is now hell-bent on rigging up an "AUKUS+" in which it will also be involved.

Of course, such behaviour of Japan has come under fierce criticism from the international community.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced at a press conference on April 8 the attempt to expand "AUKUS", urging Japan to draw a deep lesson from history and behave itself in the field of military security.

Today the situation in the Asia-Pacific region is becoming more critical than any other place due to the US strategy for hegemony, aggravating military confrontation between nations with each passing day.

Japan, which has the past history of defeat, is advised to face up to the reality and take the right path.