This is likely insignificant, yet gives some hope. Japan may yet refrain from becoming a pawn, as it would surely be obliterated in a conflict with China. Unfortunately, this is probably but a squabble over blame for imperial incompetence.
Cup half full: either Japan is incompetent or ths US was and is trying to pin the blame on Japan, which will push them away. It could also be a pretext to warn Japan it can be dropped military in an attempt to draw them in, a sort of threat or loyalty test. Either way, imperial disunity favors multipolarity and AES.
A little bit off-topic, but I would like to know what you think is the average Japanese youth’s opinion of China; high school- to university-age students, specifically. I feel like your opinion would be solid since you seem to be living in Japan.
Sorry for the late reply. I can’t speak for much younger than around university level. I have been here most of my adult life but I moved to Japan when I was around 18, so don’t have the best insight on high school age students. So my observations may not be perfectly accurate.
The average person I have talked to generally doesn’t give it much thought. Neutral to positive seems to be the prevailing opinion among a lot of Japanese youth, who are not politically very active. Especially high school students who are so focused on getting into university that the don’t have much time for anything else. University age students tend to be a bit more politically involved, and the most common opinion I see is that they share a background and should be cooperating more than they curretly are.
Ryukyu/Okinawans tend to be much more sympathetic to China from my experience. They have been double occupied by both the United States and Japan and are increasingly not happy about it. Every year they get louder in their protests against the US bases around their territory. Even younger people I have talked to in that area have been much more positive towards China. Incidentally, I have noticed that al of aspects of Ryukyu culture stray much closer to Chinese than Japanese. My company has an office there that I visit a couple times per year, so I have had the good fortune to talk to many locals.
There are also the Japanese that are much more fascinated by Western culture, whether that comes from media or overseas study. These tend to be the folks that speak English better and have much more westernized style of thought. A lot of foreigners that come here will probably largely interact with this group, simply for language issues. I don’t want to paint with too sweeping a brush because everyone is different, but I have noticed these tend to be the folks who will only date foreigenrs as well and aspire to live overseas. People in this category tend to be much less positive towards China because they have adopted American points of views; heck they tend to not be very positive about Japan either.
The far-right aren’t very pro China, they’re too nationalistic for that, but you do not see many younger folks involved with them either.
Thank you for the insight.