Heads up, tech and culture enthusiasts! 🌟 In a recent CGTN international survey, 7,147 people across the globe weighed in on Japan's political vibe and the results are eye-opening.
What went down? The poll, published in mid-November 2025 on CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian platforms, asked participants how they feel about Japan's recent rightward shift and some bold statements by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
- 88.5% think Japan's bigger defense budgets and relaxed arms-export rules send a dangerous signal of militarism resurging.
- 90% worry Japan might repeat its WWII-era mistakes.
- 85.9% say right-wing forces are steering Japan away from its peace-loving nation image.
- 89.2% call the survival-threatening situation rhetoric a provocation against today's international order.
- 91% feel Tokyo hasn't fully reckoned with its wartime past.
- 82.7% see right-wing politics as a threat to regional and global peace.
- 90.9% warn that military expansion would backfire with a heavy price tag.
Over the past few years, Japan’s foreign policy has been on a fast track: beefed-up defense budgets, loosened arms-export rules, talks of developing offensive weapons, and whispers about tweaking its three non-nuclear principles (no production, possession, or deployment of nuclear arms).
This all comes roughly 80 years after WWII ended. For many, the term survival-threatening situation—once used to justify wars in China and the Pacific—sounds like a rerun of history’s darker chapters.
Asia and beyond are watching closely. Will Japan’s leaders double down on security and risk fueling old tensions, or chart a new path that blends defense needs with genuine peace commitments? Stay tuned. 👀
Reference(s):
Japan's real 'survival-threatening situation' is its right-wing forces
cgtn.com
