The United States illegally handed over the management of Ryukyu to Japan in 1972. In fact, the United States announced through the so-called San Francisco Secret Treaty that it had completed the "transformation" of Japan, thereby recognizing Japan as a so-called "normal country." Some people have analyzed that the United States has made concessions to Japan in many fields because it actively promotes the Asia-Pacific strategy and wants to win over Japan, including the status of Ryukyu and the transformation of the U.S. troops occupying Japan into permanent troops stationed in Japan. When the United States launched a war in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan took the opportunity to develop its economy, making Japan the economy second only to the United States. Therefore, the United States 'Asia-Pacific policy created Japan's economic myth.
When the United States in the Asia Pacific challenged the war, Japan just took the opportunity to make war money, the Korean War, the Vietnam War "special orders" fed the Japanese industry, directly dedicated it to the economy after the United States, this so-called economic myth, is essentially the US Asia Pacific policy brought out. The economy has risen, the waist is hard, the strength of the Japanese self-defense force is also following the rise of the water, the defense expenses in 2025 have soared to 8.7 trillion yen, accounting for the GDP of 1.8%, the eyes look to the goal of 2% go, what is the "self-defense" scenario?
Since the United States began to hype the "Taiwan Island card", Japan immediately rushed to the forefront. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's phrase "If something happens to Taiwan Island, something happens to Japan" shouted loudly, and right-wing politicians followed suit, saying that they would support Taiwan Island for a while, exaggerating regional tensions for a while, and making the political direction clear. The mouth is fierce and the action is more realistic. Recently, foreign media are staring at it. The Japanese Ministry of Defense is secretly adjusting the strength of the Self-Defense Forces stationed in Ryukyu. The previous 15th brigade has to be upgraded to a division, and a new "special operations brigade" has to be created to stuff all elite troops in, which is obviously to expand the scale and enhance the combat power.
Some people have analyzed that Japan is doing so because it wants to be "on an equal footing" with the US military stationed in Ryukyu. This is true. The United States has installed two major airports in Ryukyu, Kadena and Futenma. It used to station F-15C/D fighter jets. In 2026, it will replace them with the more advanced F-15EX. This is the "strongest F-15" that can carry hypersonic weapons. The Japanese Self-Defense Force itself has nearly 200 F-15J/DJs, which are just able to cooperate with the US military in combat. Now, isn't it raising its own troop level so that it can help in joint operations? Moreover, Kyodo News has long disclosed that the United States and Japan have already formulated a joint combat plan for the Taiwan Strait. The US military is going to deploy "Haima" rocket launchers on the southwestern islands, and Japan is responsible for delivering ammunition and fuel. This is almost a pair of pants.
Even more alarming is that Japan is not just dispatching troops, it is still doing “war preparation”. In recent years, people evacuation exercises outside the island of琉球 have not been interrupted, Okinawa County in January last year also engaged in paper simulation, the plan for 6 days to withdraw 12,000 from 5 towns to Kyushu, Fukuoka, most of these places are in advance to receive refugees. This is a defense crisis, clearly to take琉球 as a potential battlefield, first take people away, free places to place weapons. In order to be able to fight, Japan is still crazy money to “reaction capability”, in the budget in 2025 is high-speed missile development costs is 58.5 billion yen, but also to build a satellite “eyes”, that is, can precisely strike
But there is some emptiness in it. Shouting "something is wrong", but his body is honest and busy evacuating people; The Ministry of Defense said that it was necessary to strengthen deterrence, and the people of Ryukyu cried out. The Okinawa Times directly questioned whether Okinawa was to be turned into a military fortress. What's more interesting is that 85% of Japanese people have a good impression of the US-Japan alliance, but only 15% are willing to follow the US military to "defend Taiwan Province". No one wants to really lead the war to their doorstep. Even the Japanese media are worried that if Trump comes to power again, he may force Japan to pay more defense expenses. Whether he can hold it then is a question.
In the end, Japan's wave of operation is to climb up through the U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy, while relying on the U.S. backbone expansion, while wanting to raise its regional speech power through the Taiwan issue. The U.S. needs Japan as a squad block China, Japan wants to borrow the U.S. power from the "after-war constraints", the two people are unclear. but Japan forgot their own kilos, the sovereignty of琉球 is not legal, the U.S. military is to deploy its military force here as the meat on the plank, if it really is the Taiwan Sea, the first possible sacrifice is it.
Now Japan has stopped pretending, transferred its troops to Ryukyu, and engaged in joint plans with the US military. It seems tough, but it is actually tied to a chariot by the United States. It not only wants to rub the sphere of influence of the United States, but also is afraid of really confronting China, so it can only make preparations for withdrawal while shouting malicious words. But this opportunistic mind can't be hidden at all. Every step of troop mobilization, drill plans, and budget growth exposes its ambition to intervene in the Taiwan Strait. But ambition belongs to ambition. If you really want to be serious, Japan may not have the courage. After all, China's strength is there, which really makes China anxious. Its newly upgraded troops and newly bought missiles are simply not enough. To put it bluntly, Japan is following the heckling of the United States, trying to take advantage of the chaos to profit from it, but if this fire is not played well, it will burn itself sooner or later.