China-Japan tension: "Everyone is saying it’s time to dial this down"

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Alexis Dudden, a Professor of History at the University of Connecticut and Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Transcript

00:00China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed shock at recent comments made by the Japanese Prime Minister on Taiwan.

00:08In a statement, he accused Sinai Takeichi of crossing a red line on possible military intervention.

00:15Now, speaking in Parliament last Friday, Takeichi said any attack on Taiwan would constitute a survival-threatening situation for Japan,

00:24a phrase that could legally allow Japan to activate its self-defense forces.

00:30Alexis Dudden is a professor of history at the University of Connecticut

00:33and a visiting professor of Japanese studies at the National University of Singapore.

00:38I asked her if she thought the Japanese Prime Minister's comments were off-the-cuff or deliberate.

00:45I would say deliberate point for two related reasons.

00:50One, she's a known hawk, and she has been.

00:53She's visited Taiwan as a parliamentarian.

00:55She believes in a very strong Japan militarily.

01:02She's also Japan's first female prime minister, and this cannot be discounted.

01:07If you look at global coverage of her, it's all about she rides motorcycles.

01:12She's into heavy metal.

01:14It's trying to sort of masculinize her, and going up strong against China right out of the bat is something that I think she chose intentionally.

01:27Is there a sense of whether there's actually support for her position, not just politically, but amongst the populace?

01:33So, she's got a strong support rate.

01:39I think it's in the 60 percentile right now.

01:42But if you read every single op-ed, except for by the extreme far right,

01:49everybody's saying, okay, it's time to dial this down.

01:52Let's dial this way back, because nobody wants an actual conflagration.

01:59There has been some analysis suggesting that there is a growing desire in Japan to redefine national identity.

02:08Do you agree with that position?

02:10And if so, what is driving it?

02:13So, it's been going on for several decades.

02:17And Japan is as divided an open society as many open societies are today.

02:25And the fault line rests on whether or not Japan is able to act as what Japanese politicians who support the idea call a normal nation,

02:37no maru in Japanese.

02:39And that means to have the ability to wage war outside Japan's borders,

02:44which it has not had the ability to do, nor has done since 1945.

02:50And many Japanese do not want that.

02:56And it's a 50-50 situation here.

02:59And it rests on the Constitution's prescription against Japan having the sovereign right to wage war,

03:06which is actually sort of a wonderful thing if you think about what's going on in the world.

03:11But, Takaichi and her supporters view that, in their words, as masochistic, emasculating,

03:20and they blame the United States for it, which is a little ironic since the United States is Japan's security guarantor.

03:28So, how central are debates about Japan's history in shaping Tokyo's politics in 2025?

03:36Well, denialism is front and center because the two most popular films, for example,

03:45this summer in China about the notorious Japanese biological warfare unit 731

03:51and the latest film about the Nanjing massacre, are banned in Japan.

03:57And so, denial of atrocities Japan committed outside Japan's borders shapes the politics of Takaichi.

04:08Is it possible to say at this point whether what the Japanese Prime Minister said

04:12is really ultimately just going to be a temporary bump in the road,

04:17or whether it could open up to a whole different approach coming from Japan towards China

04:24after many years of accepting this is something we're not going to touch?

04:28Knowing, noticeably, this latest round of China-Japan standoff did not originate with a history spat,

04:37but it's quickly spiraling into something from which we all know in recent history

04:45takes a while to recover from, especially economically.

04:50This spat will hurt both China and Japan.

04:54Japanese businesses are scrambling to ask the government to really dial it back.

05:00Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:03It's already, from what I understand, cost over U.S. $1 billion in tourist dollars from China to Japan.

05:10Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:11Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:12Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:13Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:14Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:15Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:16Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:17Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:18Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:19Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:20Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:21Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:22Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:23Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:24Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:25Let's just de-escalate this situation.

05:26Let's just de-escalate this situation.

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