TOKYO, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks on Taiwan are tantamount to encouraging people to "run a red light" together, a Japanese scholar has said.
"What Takaichi is doing is like telling everyone that running a red light is not frightening as long as everyone does it, and that crossing the red line of the Taiwan issue is not scary if it's done collectively," Yosuke Arino, a guest associate professor at Keio University, made the comments during a recent street speech, which has since circulated widely on social media.
In an interview with Xinhua, Arino said many people in Japan do not fully understand the historical context of Japan-China relations or the implications of Takaichi's Taiwan-related remarks, making it necessary to clearly point out the problems they entail.
Arino said Takaichi's statements in the Diet implied that Japan could intervene militarily in the event of a so-called "Taiwan contingency." Such intervention is framed domestically as the exercise of the right of collective self-defense, but internationally, that framing does not hold, he noted.
The professor cited four political documents agreed upon by Japan and China, noting that Japan had made explicit Taiwan-related commitments in these documents.
"Many Japanese are unfamiliar with the contents of the four political documents between Japan and China, especially the 1972 Sino-Japanese Joint Statement and the 1978 Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between China and Japan, and the historical trajectory that has formed based on these documents," Arino said.
From both legal and historical perspectives, Arino said Takaichi's remarks are deeply flawed. Article 9 of Japan's Constitution clearly states that the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes, the professor said, arguing that the concept of collective self-defense is itself at odds with the Constitution.
"If Japan were to militarily intervene in the Taiwan issue under the banner of collective self-defense, it would not be allowed under the Constitution," Arino said.
Noting that the Taiwan issue is a red line for China, Arino said Japan must never intervene in the Taiwan issue under the pretext of a "Taiwan contingency."
"Faced with such dangerous actions by the prime minister, we must not succumb to pressure to simply go along," Arino said.
Arino also stressed that Japan must confront its past, noting that it once waged wars of aggression across Asia, including against China, and imposed colonial rule over Taiwan for about 50 years.
"To be blind to history is to be blind to the future. Only by facing history can we face what lies ahead," he said. ■