Strengthening national defense capabilities alone is far from enough to confront the Chinese threat.

The following is from a chapter liked by readers and ranked 7th on It was a top 50 searcher for the past week, 2022/5/14.
Toyama Prefecture was one of the areas I wanted to visit for photography.
Coincidentally, the stadium views the Tateyama Mountain Range, where I want to photograph the scenery from Toyama Bay! So, I'm currently writing this column while watching the Giants vs. Yokohama DeNA match.

Those who have read through to the last chapter of this book will, like me, feel a shudder and a deep-seated anger at the current state of Japan, which has been invaded so far by China.

Understand the problem and use all your wisdom and power to put in place legislation that will prevent China from stealing our land and seas.
May 12, 2022
The following is from Ms. Yoshiko Sakurai's serial column in Weekly Shincho magazine, which was released today.
This paper also proves that she is a national treasure, a supreme national treasure, as Saicho defines.
It is a must-read not only for Japanese people but for people worldwide.

How much harm has the Liberal Democratic Party's continued giving of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism position to Komeito caused to Japan?
The problem is more than Hokkaido's shockingly lax inspection system for tour boat operators.
The Komeito Party, which can no longer be called an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, has occupied the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism position.
For China, all is well.

The emphasis in the text other than the heading is mine.

Japan, take note that the real bad guy is China.
For the past few weeks, there's been a map I've been looking at.
This map shows the Pacific Ocean on both sides, the North and South American continents on the right, and the Eurasian continent on the left, with nuclear-armed states colored red.
The Eurasian continent, centered on Russia, China, and North Korea, is dyed red, and the United States is dyed red in North America.
Amidst all this, the Japanese archipelago floats uneasily on the left edge of the Pacific Ocean.
The most dangerous region in the world right now is not the Atlantic Ocean or Europe, but the Pacific Ocean and Asia, and it is the area around our country.
With Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, we are so preoccupied with the daily reports of the war that we fail to realize how dangerous the position Japan is in due to the drastic change in the world's power balance.
Our country, in a daze, lacks the determination and preparedness for a determined national defense. Our thinking is naive, and our institutions are loose.
It is time to cooperate with the U.S. to define concrete measures for a strategy toward China, which will determine the nation's fate, and to prepare for such measures, including constitutional reform.
Still, there needs to be a strict recognition of the situation.
Naturally, China would be targeting this.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin said on April 25 that the United States will "weaken Russia" so that it can never repeat the war of aggression against Ukraine.
True to its word, the United States is becoming more committed to Ukraine to weaken Russia.
Economic aid to replenish and strengthen Ukraine's weapons equipment amounted to 3.05 billion dollars (approximately 398.2 billion yen) from February 24, when Russia launched a full-scale war of aggression, to April 21.
However, on April 28, President Biden requested that Congress provide an additional $33 billion (approximately 4,308.7 billion yen) in aid.
Combined with the results since February, the total amount is approximately 4.7 trillion yen, more than half of Russia's 2021 military budget of 65.9 billion dollars (approximately 8.6 trillion yen).
In this war of aggression, it is natural to stand on Ukraine's side and hate Putin, which is why it is understandable that the United States would support Ukraine.
At the same time, from Japan's perspective, we cannot help but worry about the situation that the Ukraine war is creating in Asia.
The map at the beginning of the book, which represents Japan's crisis, symbolizes this.

Weakening of the United States
China is most happy that the United States will continue to get deeply involved in the Ukraine issue and invest in economic and military resources.
Their grand goal is to win the competition with the United States and become the world's hegemony, and their enemy is the United States.
Therefore, China has always wanted to weaken the United States.
During President Bush's (father) Gulf War and President Bush's (son) Afghan War, the Chinese were keenly interested in how much power the U.S. would exhaust in the Middle East region and how much this would diminish U.S. national power and threaten its position.
They must have longed for the U.S. to be drained and for the war to be protracted and, if possible, bogged down. 
The same is likely to be true this time.
The hope is that the war between Ukraine and Russia will drag on, and the U.S. military will become more deeply committed and exhausted by massive aid.
If the United States were to weaken, China could dominate the Asia-Pacific.
Such a development would be extremely dangerous for both Japan and the United States and would go against President Biden's strategy.
Last year, the United States decided to withdraw from the Afghan war.
Biden has clarified that the withdrawal is to focus on the real threat: China.
However, if the United States becomes too deeply involved in the Ukraine issue, it will be unable to concentrate its efforts on China.
It is a severe crisis for Japan.
That is why Japan must think about how quickly it can defeat Russia in the war against Ukraine.
Geopolitically, the most significant concern for Japan and the U.S. is that China and Russia will join forces and effectively dominate the Eurasian continent. 
However, what is happening now is truly a China-Russia partnership.
The Biden administration may be losing its strategic direction, unable to focus on dealing with China's most significant threat, and unable to prevent China-Russia collaboration.
On the other hand, for China, now that the U.S. and Europe are concentrating on Ukraine, it is a strategic opportunity.
They are single-mindedly building military power as the basis of national strength.
"In 2030, People's Liberation Army (PLA) missile forces and bombers will fly twice against 850 targets within 3,200 km of mainland China and twice against more than 4,500 targets within 1,400 km. It will be possible to carry out multiple attacks," said Masashi Murano, a researcher at the Hudson Institute, an American think tank.
In the next few years, China's nuclear and non-nuclear strategic missiles will be capable of hitting both Japan and Taiwan multiple times with ease.
The area around Japan on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean is already the area with the highest concentration of nuclear weapons and missiles. 
Still, as the density increases, the danger will also increase.

National land acquisition
As the Biden administration has declared, China is the real threat, the more formidable enemy.
Many Japanese people must already sense that Japan is the country targeted the most by China.
In this sense, a policy of strengthening national defense capabilities is urgently needed, but defense spending equivalent to 2% of GDP will be far from enough.
What kind of invasion will China extend to Japan?
They will not follow in Mr. Putin's footsteps.
As the security agreement with the Solomon Islands revealed in April, China has effectively taken over the Solomon government center in the blink of an eye, without even the Solomon Islands parliament being aware of it and without giving Australia or the US time to stop it.
Whether by bribes or threats, they have an inexhaustible arsenal to capture the targets they have set their sights on.
Japan cannot laugh about the Solomon Islands.
The Sankei Shimbun dated July 7, 2011, in an article by Masashi Miyamoto, an editorial board member of the Sankei Shimbun, warns that China is moving to seize the source of Japan's electricity supply by taking orders for offshore wind power generation projects in Japan.
Miyamoto says that while it is dangerous for even a portion of the electricity supply to be in the hands of other countries, especially China, there is more to it than that.
"For example, a Chinese company has decided to participate in an offshore wind power generation project in Nyuzen Town, Toyama Prefecture. The power generation company can investigate the wind power, ocean currents, seabed topography, geology, etc., of the sea area where the generator will be installed. The company receiving the contract can occupy and explore the area for up to 30 years."
Mr. Miyamoto, who has covered the acquisition of Japan's land by Chinese capital for over 20 years, has the following to say:
"Not only the national land such as forests, water sources, and farmland but also the sea and seabed of Japan, a maritime nation, could end up in the hands of Chinese capital."
Isn't that a scary story?
Strengthening national defense capabilities alone is far from enough to confront the Chinese threat.
Politicians should set up antennae of crisis around themselves like hedgehogs and emphasize the threat of China to the United States as well.
Understand the problem and use all your wisdom and power to put in place legislation that will prevent China from taking over our land and seas.

2024/5/11 in Kyoto