China has reiterated its concerns about growing talks of re-militarization and nuclearization in Japan, a day after its defense minister hinted that revisiting the country’s position on nuclear weapons is unavoidable.

China claimed that such a move would be a violation of existing arrangements in the region and Japan’s commitments to international law and warned it may lead to instability in the region.

During an online news program telecast on Sunday, Japan’s defense minister, Shinjirō Koizumi, while drawing a parallel between the situation in Ukraine and East Asia was reported saying that “though it is a difficult issue … one topic we cannot avoid is nuclear weapons.”

Koizumi was responding to continued public support for the country’s pacifist constitution and its three non-nuclear principles, despite his government’s push to revise them.

On Sunday, thousands of Japanese took to the streets in Tokyo to oppose the Sanae Takaichi-led government’s plans to revise the constitution and the three non-nuclear principles to allow the deployment of US nuclear arms in the country and push for its re-militarization agenda.

Japan’s three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, not producing, and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons was formulated in 1967 and have been followed by all successive governments in the country since then.

Japan’s experience of being the only country in the world to have faced the devastating effects of nuclear weapons has been critical in shaping its nuclear outlook and public opinion over the issue.

However, the recent rise of the right wing in the country’s politics and growing pressure from the US in its “New Cold War” with China has led to calls for a “national revival” and attempts to re-militarize the country, including talks of Japan developing its own nuclear weapons.

The Takaichi government has pushed the US narrative of possible threats from China to the countries in the region and expressed its openness to the deployment of US nuclear weapons to the country, calling it “extended deterrence.”

Strong public opinion against nuclear weapons

However, Japanese public opinion has remained largely opposed to re-militarization and nuclearization.

In a recent public opinion survey in the country, more than 75% of respondents opposed any tampering with the three non-nuclear principles. In the same survey, more than 67% of Japanese also opposed the Takachi government’s push for the militarization of the country.

According to a report in Global Times last week, 82 local assemblies across Japan, including those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have submitted written opinions to the central government demanding no revisions be made to the country’s no-nuclear principles.

The report noted that the number of local assemblies submitting such demands have grown significantly this year as there is a growing fear of such a move by the current government.

Japan has been witnessing large-scale protests against the Takaichi government’s policies since the beginning of the year. Before the July 19 protests there were similar protests in May, June, and earlier this month as well.

Respect public opinion and commitments to the NPT

Lin Jian, official spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a regular press conference on Monday, July 20, called the growing popular mobilizations against the Takaichi government’s policies “a clear sign that people want peace.”

“Tokyo’s rush to abandon the pacifist constitution and remilitarize the country at a faster pace is out of step with the public. We urge the Japanese authorities to stop going further down the wrong path and not to stubbornly go against the overwhelming trend on the nuclear issue,” he underlined.

“If the Japanese authorities stick to their miscalculation on the nuclear issue” and deploy allies’ nuclear weapons, “they not only gravely challenge the postwar international order and the nuclear non-proliferation regime, but also breach the commitment to peace,” Lin said, warning that Japan may “eventually pay a heavy price” for such policy choices.

Lin reminded the Japanese government that the country, as a signatory of the NPT, “bears indisputable, undeniable and non-negotiable obligations under international law to refrain from receiving, manufacturing, acquiring or transferring nuclear weapons.”

He urged the international community and the Japanese people to further push the Takaichi government to make it respect its commitments under the NPT and abandon its plans for re-militarization.

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