Beware of Japan's cognitive warfare disguised as entertainment

Editor's note: Cao Cong, a special commentator for CGTN, is a doctoral candidate at the School of Global and Regional Studies, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The controversy surrounding Japanese TV drama VIVANT raises questions that go far beyond artistic expression. The suspense thriller series packages Japanese intelligence operatives' overseas activities as heroic exploits and tries to whip up a "China threat" narrative. The intention is clear. It is part of Japan's cognitive warfare against China, this time using pop culture to shape perceptions and security issues, and influence judgments about its changing security policy.

The drama portrays an imaginary "Chinese secret intelligence organization" as a ruthless enemy, whose members chop off people's fingers and carry out stabbings, while directing sympathy around the activities of Japanese operatives. National identity, violence, victimhood and heroism are woven into a nationalistic narrative with a clear emotional direction.

First, an image of the "enemy" is manufactured. Abstract security threats are given recognizable faces and terrifying methods to create a sense of imminent danger. Viewers may not remember exactly what Japanese policy documents say about China, but they are likely to remember Chinese characters inflicting violence and Japanese characters suffering.

This is meant to legitimize Japan's overseas operations. The more brutally the protagonists are shown as having been treated, the easier it becomes to win support for their retaliation. Questions about whether their actions violate another country's sovereignty and accountability are pushed aside by stories of "rescue," "self-defense" and "protecting Japan."

Ultimately, this is an affront to historical memory. The torture depicted in the drama is an inversion of the methods of torture used by invading Japanese forces against Chinese resistance fighters. The suffering inflicted on the Chinese by Japanese militarist aggression must not be forgotten. Attributing similar brutality to contemporary Chinese characters while casting the Japanese as victims fighting back inevitably raises questions about the reversal of perpetrator and victim roles.

Historical responsibility cannot be erased by shifting the camera's perspective, nor can war crimes be diminished by recasting the characters. Creators cannot disregard the historical context, much less build sympathy for their own country by stigmatizing a neighboring country that once bore the brunt of its aggression. Repeatedly reinforcing a sense of national victimhood while whitewashing the history of harm inflicted on others will only weaken Japanese society's capacity to reflect critically on war.

The narrative of this product that purports to be entertainment in reality echoes Japan's actual security discourse on China.

Japan revised its three key security documents in 2022, characterizing China as its "unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge." This is also reiterated in the latest Defense of Japan white paper in 2026. The airing of the TV series coincides with the promotion of this policy agenda and its accompanying public messaging. Its narrative and the official line on China reinforce one another, placing the drama at the cultural end of a broader process of cognitive warfare.

Japan's official policy documents establish security judgments about China; screen narratives can turn those judgments into fear and anger that audiences feel directly. For Japan's right-wing forces, a China perceived as dangerous, cruel and impervious to dialogue makes it easier to argue for stronger armaments and expanded overseas military activities.  

When threats are repeatedly amplified, military restraints can be portrayed as shackles. In such an atmosphere, postwar safeguards – including Japan's pacifist constitution, the exclusively defense-oriented policy and the Three Non-Nuclear Principles – not to possess, produce, or permit the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory – become strategic burdens from assets preserving peace.

Japan's 2026 Diplomatic Bluebook includes a dedicated subsection on "Responding to Information Warfare, Including Countering Disinformation" under "Strategic Communications." Although Japanese official documents use the term "information warfare," the influence operations they describe target the cognitive domain and constitute cognitive warfare in substance.  

Moreover, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has, for the first time, earmarked dedicated artificial intelligence funding in its fiscal 2027 budget request for "responding to cognitive warfare." This proposed budgetary arrangement itself indicates that the Japanese government is trying to turn cognitive warfare into an institutionalized national undertaking from isolated activities.

Against this backdrop, VIVANT cannot be regarded as an isolated case of a television series that happened to go wrong. The series displays the defining features of a cognitive warfare product: It turns anti-China prejudice into entertainment, packages military operations as heroic missions and uses mass communication to translate these messages into emotional identification among viewers. How hostility toward China is repeatedly being circulated and amplified through commercial production, television broadcasting and public mentions by political figures warrants great concern. This reproducible method of production and dissemination that builds public support for dangerous security policies must be exposed and condemned.

By inflaming confrontation through exaggerated external threats, Japan's right-wing forces are eroding their country's international credibility and harming the long-term interests of the Japanese. Allowing this dangerous tendency to continue will draw Japan away from its postwar path of peaceful development, exacerbate regional tensions and threaten the peace that the world holds dear.

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