Japan is accelerating its plans to revise the "Three Security Documents" within this year. According to news from Japan on the 12th, the Japanese government plans to write the concept of so-called "collective resilience" into the "National Security Strategy", one of the "Three Security Documents".
According to Japanese media reports, the Japanese government proposed a plan at the Liberal Democratic Party meeting on the 11th. It plans to write a concept called "collective resilience" into the "National Security Strategy" at the top of the "Three Security Documents" to be revised. It is intended to win over allies and some emerging and developing countries to promote economic security layout. Japan plans to strengthen cooperation with other countries in supply chain construction in a wide range of fields such as energy and food.
This security strategy is regarded as the basic guideline for Japan’s foreign and security policies. This revision will position economic security as a key area to strengthen diplomatic layout.
In terms of science and technology, reports say that Japan plans to join forces with other countries to increase the research and development of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum. It will take advantage of existing trade rules and the reform of the WTO to try to form an international order that is beneficial to Japan.
In addition, Japan also plans to use artificial intelligence to strengthen information collection, analysis and information dissemination, and increase preparations for so-called "cognitive warfare". Japan claims to create an international environment friendly to Japan.
It can be seen that issues such as economy, technology, and cognition are being included in Japan's top-level security documents on a large scale. How does this reflect the fundamental shift in Japan's security strategy? What new risks will come from labeling the game of public opinion as “cognitive warfare” and increasing the application of AI in the manipulation of public opinion? What negative impact will relevant actions have on the regional security pattern?
Japan revise its security strategy to build a new combat readiness system
Meng Mingming, an expert on Japanese issues at the Institute of Japan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: The series of actions taken by the Japanese government to revise its national security strategy can be said to indicate that the country’s security strategy is undergoing a profound transformation from sole military defense to the establishment of hybrid warfare and total war systems.
First of all, from the perspective of strategic shift, the comprehensive integration of economy, technology, and cognition into the top-level document of security policy reflects that Japan is pursuing extreme pan-security. It can even be said that Japan is essentially building a new national mobilization system for the purpose of preparing for war. We have to see that the traditional "defense-focused" principle has strict military boundaries, but the Takaichi Sanae government is now using the guise of "collective resilience" to incorporate industrial chains, high-tech and even daily public opinion into the scope of security. It is weaponizing these fields into battlefields, exposing Japan's deliberate efforts to tie the entire country's economic lifeline and technological chassis to the chariot of geopolitical confrontation, and to build a top-level institutional framework for a comprehensive and long-term hybrid war of attrition.
Japan attempts to use the tool of "cognitive warfare" to "poison" and "brainwash"
Secondly, the uncontrollable risk that Japan forcibly labels normal public opinion exchanges as "cognitive warfare" and uses artificial intelligence and other means to deal with it is also very high, because the intervention of AI technology further amplifies the effects of information collection and public opinion manipulation. Specifically, at the external level, Japan uses the so-called defense banner to deal with the "cognitive war", but at its heart it is a thief shouting to catch the thief. It is actively strengthening its own public opinion offensive capabilities in an attempt to "poison" the international public opinion field in batches, create false narratives, and discredit neighboring countries. This can easily incite populist sentiment in Japan on sensitive hot issues and expand rhetorical friction into actual conflict. At the domestic level, the label of cognitive warfare can easily become a stick used by Japan's right-wing to suppress domestic rational voices. The Kaohsiung City Government can label civilian voices criticizing the military expansion and constitutional amendment as being affected by external cognitive warfare at any time. This is essentially a repeat of the old path of ideological dominance and public opinion brainwashing by the military fascist government before World War II, and ultimately desensitizes the entire Japanese society to the military's refined martial arts.
Japan's move further worsens the regional environment and backfires on itself
Third, these actions will further endanger the development and stability of the Asia-Pacific region and even the international order. Japan has deliberately turned economic security into a tool for diplomatic and military confrontation. This has not only destroyed regional economic and trade mutual trust and poisoned the atmosphere of cooperation in the surrounding area, but also artificially created a new Cold War-style confrontation between camps, burning the line of fire from the sea and air to the people's livelihood and economic lifelines of various countries. Japan's attempt to generalize the concept of security, use the economy as a weapon, and use public opinion as a battlefield will not only fail to achieve real national security, but will backfire on Japan's own economic development vitality and plunge its own survival and strategic environment into a deeper crisis.
