'Neo-militarism' will once again lead Japan toward abyss

Amid escalating worsening regional tensions, Japan continues expanding its defense budget -- an approach that smacks of a self-staged drama." In its year-end editorial for 2025, Tokyo Shimbun sounded a warning.

An increasing number of insightful voices in Japan have come to recognize that the Sanae Takaichi administration has deviated from Japan's postwar pacifist path, continuously fabricating a sense of danger for the public and building momentum for what can only be described as "neo-militarism."

Historical precedents remain starkly relevant. A look back at Japan before and during World War II shows that deception and manipulation of its own people ran throughout the criminal expansion of militarism. In the end, wars of aggression not only inflicted enormous disasters on the region, but also brought catastrophic suffering upon the Japanese people.

To drive the war machine, Japan's militarists spared no effort in selling the public a "poisoned illusion." Brutal aggression was dressed up as a "just war" for national rejuvenation and the "liberation of Asia," while the slaughter and oppression of neighboring peoples were whitewashed under the banner of the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."

To enforce this narrative, Japanese militarists constructed an ideological prison.

They indoctrinated the public with the Kokoku Shikan, a historical view that regards the history of Japan as the unfolding of a divine plan centered on the Emperor, proclaiming Japan a "divine nation" and the Japanese people superior to all others.

They promulgated documents such as the Imperial Rescript on Education and Shinmin no michi, enforcing imperial indoctrination and servile education to subordinate the populace to the will of war.

They fabricated cultural toxins that glorified warfare, including works such as North Shore Troops and the so-called "soldier" trilogy, promoting spurious "heroic deeds."

Even after catastrophic defeat in World War II, they continued to issue fictitious victory reports through "Imperial General Headquarters announcements," constructing within Japan an information cocoon completely divorced from reality.

Countless Japanese youth were funneled into the war machine. Under the grip of militarist slogans such as "seven lives for the emperor" and "one hundred million shattered jewels," they were reduced to cannon fodder.

Many civilians were forced to endure extreme rationing under the National Mobilization Law, driving daily life to the brink of collapse. Countless women were deceived or coerced into becoming so-called "comfort women" for the military, many of whom lost their lives.

When the illusion finally collapsed, the price was written in blood: more than three million Japanese died, over 120,000 war orphans were left displaced, and large numbers of people in the Ryukyu Islands were forced into "mass suicides."

From deceiving the people to bringing calamity upon them, Japanese militarism is at its core a doctrine of bloodthirsty gambling. Recently, a Japanese scholar writing for People's Daily recalled a phrase often spoken by his elders: "It was a good thing that Japan lost the war." The depth of Japan's painful memory of war is evident in such words.

History's warning is close at hand, yet Japan's right wing is repeating old tricks. Under the rhetoric of so-called "normalizing the state," and in the name of strengthening "autonomous defense" and building a "nation capable of fighting," they are whipping up support for "neo-militarism."

They deny the history of aggression and tamper with history textbooks in an attempt to shed what they call the "burden of history," poisoning and brainwashing younger generations. They exaggerate "external threats" and a "survival-threatening situation," seek to revise the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, and attempt to break free from the constraints of the Pacifist Constitution and the status of a defeated nation.

Externally, they fan the flames of tension and provoke confrontation, hoping to profit from chaos and seize opportunities for expansion. In short, Japan's right wing seeks to completely abandon the pacifist path that underpinned Japan's postwar development and to reshape the country according to its obsession with "neo-militarism."

As Japan's right wing pushes the country further down the misguided road of militarism, it will ultimately be the Japanese people who bear the cost.

Japan's defense budget for fiscal year 2026 has reached a record high of 9.04 trillion yen ($57.41 billion), sparking widespread opposition at home. At a time when Japan's economy faces sluggish growth and shrinking fiscal space, the public broadly hopes the government will prioritize revitalizing the economy and improving social welfare.

A renewed turn toward military expansion has only deepened concerns among thoughtful voices in Japan. "The so-called 'three security documents' speak only of preparing for war, not of avoiding it." "Takaichi's remarks do more harm than good and do not serve Japan's national interests." "Japan's diplomacy should aim to maintain stable and normal external relations." Such voices opposing militarism continue to emerge within Japan, reflecting profound anxiety over the country's strategic direction.

More than 80 years ago, the Japanese people were handed a hollow promise that "the war could be won," only to inherit ruins and immeasurable suffering. Today, right-wing forces remain fixated on the same obsession, attempting once again to drag the nation into the abyss of "neo-militarism" and to repeat a path that harms both others and itself.

Against this backdrop, Japan's peace advocates must remain highly vigilant. Japan's future does not lie in right-wing fantasies but in a thorough reckoning with its history of aggression, fostering neighborly relations, and steadfastly safeguarding regional peace and development.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)