Editor's note: Pan Deng is a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Eighty-one years ago, on August 15, 1945, Japan laid down its arms in unconditional surrender, bringing a tragic era of imperial conquest and regional devastation to an absolute close. Out of the wreckage of that total defeat emerged a constitutional order that became a cornerstone of East Asian stability.

By forever renouncing war as a sovereign right of the state under Article 9, Japan bound its security posture to the collective principles of the United Nations Charter. This solemn pledge assured its neighbors that Tokyo had permanently discarded the pre-war doctrine that identified national greatness with the projection of military force.

Today, that post-war settlement is facing a severe crisis. Under the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan is accelerating a profound transformation toward state remilitarization.

This trajectory reflects a deep-seated ideational shift that systematically echoes the statecraft of pre-war Japan. By masking offensive force structures beneath contemporary concepts of economic resilience and technological sovereignty, Tokyo is unravelling the pacifist principles that guaranteed regional tranquility for eight decades.

The historical continuity of state remilitarization

To comprehend the true gravity of Japan's current trajectory, one must view it through the lens of historical institutionalism. The modern drive for remilitarization did not begin in a vacuum. It represents the realization of a long-term strategy set in motion when Shinzo Abe returned to power in 2012.

Abe initiated a methodical erosion of post-war constitutional constraints, leveraging the doctrine of "proactive contribution to peace" to reintroduce collective self-defense. Today, Prime Minister Takaichi, inheriting and expanding this revisionist blueprint, has accelerated the process into a full-scale institutional overhaul.

According to official budget figures, Japan's broader defense-related allocation for fiscal year 2026 has crossed an unprecedented 9 trillion yen ($56.5 billion), marking a historic peak. Far from being an isolated surge, this record allocation serves as a launching pad.

The Cabinet Office is already reconsidering the strategic framework governing fiscal year 2027 and beyond, establishing an enduring upward trajectory for defense spending.

This relentless fiscal expansion closely mirrors the structural logic of Japan's pre-war statecraft. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the imperial state was guided by the slogan Fukoku Kyohei (Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Armed Forces), a doctrine that treated economic development and military strength as inseparable pillars of state power.

Today, Tokyo is reviving this duality in a 21st-century key. By normalizing high defense outlays as a permanent feature of state governance, the Takaichi cabinet is systematically conditioning the nation to accept state power projection as the primary instrument of national strategy.

The militarization of industry and the resurgence of the war economy

The most alarming aspect of this contemporary remilitarization is how thoroughly military imperatives have penetrated the civilian foundations of the Japanese state. Defense expenditure is no longer restricted to traditional military institutions. Instead, military needs are becoming deeply embedded across industrial policy, technological governance and economic security frameworks.

Under policy directives led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA), major industrial conglomerates are receiving expanding state procurement orders, aligning private corporate survival with military expansion.

Simultaneously, prestigious academic and scientific research institutions are being systematically drawn into defense-oriented innovation ecosystems through ATLA research grants. This trend is reinforced by the steady dismantling of the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, enabling Japanese contractors to integrate directly into global lethal technology supply chains.

In this emerging framework, advanced civilian technologies are systematically reinterpreted through the imperative of state survival. Artificial intelligence, commercial satellite networks, quantum cyber architecture, and advanced precision manufacturing are increasingly evaluated through a militarized lens.

This structural alignment revives the dangerous historical precedent of total war mobilization, where the entire economic and technological apparatus of the nation was harnessed to serve state security goals. By fusing civilian innovation with defense production, Tokyo is constructing a self-sustaining defense-industrial complex. This institutional apparatus creates a powerful internal momentum for permanent remilitarization, embedding war capability into the core of Japan's economic governance.

Semantic euphemisms and the strategy of expeditionary projection

The execution of this policy relies heavily on a sophisticated linguistic cloak designed to obscure its strategic implications. The terminology deployed by Tokyo policymakers is deliberately administrative, neutral and reassuring.

Legislation such as the Economic Security Promotion Act frames state intervention through concepts like "economic security," which conveys a benign civilian purpose. Terms like "resilience" sound inherently defensive, "innovation" suggests progressive development and "intelligence capability" appears purely managerial.

However, their strategic significance changes when these benign concepts are systematically integrated with mass missile production, real-time strike-targeting networks, expanded ammunition stockpiles and logistics designed for prolonged combat. The gentle vocabulary functions as a semantic shield, concealing the rapid acquisition of offensive war-making capabilities.

The physical reality of this shift became undeniable in March, Japan deployed its land-based Type 25 anti-ship missile in Kumamoto Prefecture. With an upgraded 1,000 km-range, the missile far exceeds the country's territorial defense requirements and possesses clear offensive capabilities, marking Japan's first deployment of long-range missiles with "counterstrike capabilities."

The true nature of this transformation is explicitly detailed in the Ministry of Defense's latest official white paper, Defense of Japan. For the first time, the document includes a dedicated chapter on "new forms of warfare," emphasizing artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and the structural capacity for sustained, long-term operational engagement. Weapons with these parameters and reach far exceed the technical requirements of self-defense. They represent a clear capacity for expeditionary power projection and a direct violation of the post-war Pacifist Constitution.

A moral and multilateral imperative for peaceful coexistence

To seek national renewal through the accumulation of offensive military power is to ignore the catastrophic lessons of human history. The post-war order, built upon the principles of the United Nations Charter, was designed specifically to replace power politics with international law and cooperative security.

China, alongside all peace-loving nations across the Asia-Pacific, has advocated for a regional order founded on mutual respect, indivisible security and shared economic prosperity. The revival of Japanese neo-militarism threatens to disrupt this delicate equilibrium, reigniting historical anxieties and provoking an unnecessary, dangerous security dilemma across East Asia.

True national greatness does not reside in the range of stand-off missiles or the lethality of hypersonic weapons, but in an unyielding fidelity to solemn constitutional commitments and global peace. On this eighty-first anniversary of the end of World War II, historical conscience demands that Tokyo halt its current trajectory. Japan must honor its constitutional commitment to peace, uphold the multilateral authority of the United Nations, and walk alongside its regional neighbors toward a shared and harmonious future.

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