IN early December 2021, Japan’s Self-Defence Force joined the US armed forces for Resolute Dragon 2021, which the US Marines called the “largest bilateral training exercise of the year.”  

Major General Jay Bargeron said at the start of the exercise that the US is “ready to fight and win if called upon.”  

Resolute Dragon 2022 followed the resumption, in September, of trilateral military drills off the Korean peninsula by Japan, South Korea and the US; these drills had been suspended as the former South Korean government attempted a policy of rapprochement with North Korea.

These military manoeuvres take place in the context of heightened tensions between the US and China, with the most recent US National Security Strategy identifying China as the “only competitor” of the US in the world, and therefore in need of being constrained by the US and its allies (which, in the region, are Japan and South Korea).  

This posture comes despite repeated denials by China — including by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on November 1 2022 — that it will “never seek hegemony or engage in expansionism.”

These military exercises, therefore, place Japan centre stage in the new cold war being prosecuted by the US against China.

In Article 9, the 1947 constitution of Japan forbids the country from building up an aggressive military force. Two years after Article 9 was inserted into the constitution at the urging of the US occupation, the Chinese revolution succeeded — and the US began to reassess the disarmament of Japan.

Discussions about the revocation of Article 9 began at the start of the Korean war in 1950, with the US government putting pressure on Japanese prime minister Shigeru Yoshida to build up the army and militarise the National Police Reserve; the Ashida Amendment to Article 9 weakened Japan’s commitment to demilitarisation and left the door to full-scale rearmament open.  

Public opinion in Japan is still against the formal removal of Article 9. Despite this, Japan has continued to build up its military capacity.

In the 2021 budget, Japan added another $7 billion (an increase of 7.3 per cent) to spend $54.1bn on its military, “the highest annual increase since 1972,” notes the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In September 2022, Japan’s Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that his country would “radically strengthen the defence capabilities we need. To protect Japan, it’s important for us to have not only hardware such as aircraft and ships, but also enough ammunition for them.” Japan has indicated that it would increase its military budget by 11 per cent a year from now till 2024.  

In December, Japan will release a new national security strategy, the first since 2014. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the Financial Times, “We will be fully prepared to respond to any possible scenario in east Asia to protect the lives and livelihoods of our people.” It appears that Japan is rushing into a conflict with China, its largest trading partner.  

This article was produced by Globetrotter. Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.