Japan, currently governed by the nascent and weak Shigeru Ishiba administration, is increasingly facing a different kind of provocation from China.
China, when Shinzo Abe was prime minister, stealthily began the practice of placing buoys in Japan’s exclusive economic zone and territorial waters — apparently to track submarines and map seabed communication cables that connect 90% of the nation’s global internet traffic. Since the summer of 2023, the Chinese have placed three strategically positioned buoys, with the Japanese government offering little to no pushback.
Furthermore, there has been an increase in intentional military incursions into Japanese airspace and territorial waters, including those around the main islands. China is also no longer hesitant to send its aircraft carrier group through narrow straits in the southernmost Nansei Islands to conduct drills or to practice nuclear bombing runs in the Sea of Japan together with Russia.
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