Prime Minister Takaichi protests against China’s rare earth restrictions, saying “it is unacceptable” and “we are calling for the measures to be withdrawn”

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/bdc476eb46e10a30f64feada6366cb7bfc813824

28 Comments

  1. …yeah, but wtf is she going to do about it?

    I support Japan in this but I don’t think Takaichi has a good understanding of her own cards. It’s one thing to be all “rah rah Japan will be strong against China” but if you get take that confidence into the real world without accepting reality you can wind up making a lot of unforced errors.

  2. thinkingperson on

    And it’s ok for US, Japan and the rest of the west to restrict and contain China? Unbelieveable.

  3. why would they negotiate with someone who threatens chinese national security? makes zero sense

  4. How could Takaichi be so foolish?

    Yeah, all of this is ‘it is unacceptable’ to you… But did you know that for many Asian countries, the revisionist modern history of Japan that you are trying to reinforce is fundamentally unacceptable? Similarly, for those Chinese people, your attempt to intervene in their internal affairs and your attempt to confront them militarily is also ‘fundamentally unacceptable’?

    Enjoy this game, you’ve started it, but it won’t end the way you want it to.

  5. This goes back to the idea that

    1. Japan is middle power and cannot influence a great power country

    2. Is not fully in control of its destiny (does not mine its own rare earths) and needs to play nice instead of talking tough

  6. DigiHumanMediaCo on

    You guys are cooked, why start a fight if you have no punches and rely on your bigger friend who’s on vacation.

  7. Comfortable_Soup5217 on

    Japanese people believe that Japan is a superpower. The later realization is delayed, the grimmer consequence it will bring.

  8. Emperor_of_All on

    What is she protesting with? You need to be able to have some sort of leverage to negotiate and make demands.

    Maybe she needed to think about her position and her country’s position before making statements…

  9. PM Takaichi’s next move is to align with Western nations that are liable to be pressured by the CCP. There isn’t a single Western country that thinks they are immune to this kind of political coercion.

  10. I thought they wanted to boycott China?

    Why is she protesting something she wanted to do anyway?

  11. BusinessEngineer6931 on

    She’s the one that wanted to decouple 🤷‍♂️ China just helped speed it up and now she’s crying “wait not like that”

  12. What has Japan even gained as a country since starting this bullshit with China? Has Takaichi’s comments given Japanese people more jobs? More affordable housing? Better social support? Oh sure, there’s less chinese tourists now (not even by that much). Was that worth the chinese sanctions? All to make a comment that honestly only has any value if backed by the US, but anyone relying on trump for anything right now is just stupid. Since she can talk so readily about military intervention with china, why not just go ahead and declare war on china then? Cause unless you do that, there is no way China is backing down from the sanctions, especially now that you’re literally showing them that the sanctions hurt and work

  13. She can’t handle some of her own medicine. When doing unfair trade practices that benefit Japan while costing other countries like China it only makes sense for them to retaliate. What does she expect? She’s a disgrace to Japan. Her being prime minister is a failed experiment.

    Let’s form a coalition together to get the people of Japan to think negatively of her and weaken her position as prime minister. We can do this together. Alone we don’t have much power, but together we do.

    I have a genuine interest in preventing her from doing damage to Japan.

  14. Ok_Situation_7081 on

    Honestly, Japan has been on thin since it joined the US in restricting chip exports to China. At that time, China threatened that they would cut off Japan’s shipment of REE but they didnt take action.

    Japan decided to test the waters again and shit went south for them. China even gave them the choice of simply recanting the PMs statement but they decided to stay firm on their position. Like the old saying goes, you sleep on the bed you make.

  15. I mean when you think about this logically, when Japan said it will go to war with China, why would China fund Japan to start a war with them?