Japan’s youth renews interest in war

The following Japanese talk show was aired a few days ago on Fuji TV. 
https://youtu.be/kvK8sPmF3S8?si=FlcRl5LSboC9gheB

The show is about a younger cohort of politicians in the government taking leadership roles in matters related to national defense. Key young politicians that lead national defense in the government include 2 of Takaichi’s main rivals in the previous LDP internal election: Koizumi and Kobayashi. Koizumi is the face of the LDP’s young generation, and he is currently the MInister of Defense. Kobayashi now serves a central role in the party, and he is also known for national defense. Kobayashi is also a key figure that represents the LDP’s young generation, second only to Koizumi. 

See my video that covers the election where Takaichi ran against Koizumi and Kobayashi:
https://youtu.be/zS-A3eB1j6A

See my article about how Koizumi is making Japan’s national defense cool and sexy:
https://www.patreon.com/JapanMediaReview/posts/why-japans-of-is-150976859/edit

In the past, national defense was considered a boring dead topic in Japanese politics. In the show, it is mentioned that discussing national defense used to be political suicide for a politician. In the past, young people of Japan cared very little about national defense and war. Post-war Japan has persistently avoided paying too much attention to matters related to war, including its own history of war crimes.

But that era is coming to an end. Young people of Japan today are increasingly interested in national defense, and all matters related to war by extension.

While I understand that national defense isn’t exactly equivalent to waging wars, national defense and war are represented as almost the same topic in Japan. For example, the Ministry of Defense made the following YouTube video that uses fun animation to explain national defense to a young audience:
https://youtu.be/fJmdKZ53npY?si=Hu5cFEzJfwRH0xYE

The video explains that national defense is about understanding the newest war technologies like drones and how war is evolving with technology. The video tries to make national defense an interesting topic by associating it with futuristic war tech. The Ministry of Defense also published a pamphlet in 2026 where the cover image contains young people having fun in a futuristic tech setting: 
https://www.mod.go.jp/en/publ/w_paper/index.html

The talk show says that this pamphlet cover shows that the government is rebranding national defense as a cool fun topic that interests young people. The pamphlet educates young people on all matters related to war, like how war is fought in Ukraine and how war should be fought in the AI era.

The talk show says that young people today are increasingly paying attention to national defense as a key political issue, and politicians are picking up on it and emphasizing national defense in elections. For example, Takaichi is widely popular among the youth, and one of her main appeals is that she has a long track record of advocating for stronger national defense. As the Prime Minister, her signature policy visions include boosting Japan’s defense capacity and potentially allowing the US to station nuclear weapons in Japan. Compared to previous generations, today’s Japanese youth feels much more threatened by other nations; they are interested in protecting Japan from outside threats and less interested in collaborating and communicating with the outside.

The youth’s renewed interest in national defense is also found in the general public. A recent survey shows that the majority of Japanese agrees with increasing the nation’s defense budget, which is a key policy of the Takaichi administration:
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/election/yoron-chosa/20260326-GYT1T00015/

Regarding how national defense interacts with anti-immigration sentiments, the overlap is not straightforward. The political figures who lead national defense are not exactly the same as the ones leading anti-immigration movements. Neither Koizumi nor Kobayashi is a significant figure in the anti-immigration movement. Overall, key figures in national defense do not significantly overlap with key figures in anti-immigration movements. However, many anti-immigration advocates use national defense as a reason to reject immigration.

While I agree that Japan has the right to defend itself, I also want to point out that Japan is a nation that has a horrible attitude toward its own history of war crimes. A 2026 NHK national survey shows that only 35% of Japanese think Japan invaded other nations in WW2:
https://news.web.nhk/newsweb/na/nb-5090034529

As the nation increasingly becomes interested in war, how would this interact with the fact that the nation by and large doesn’t acknowledge or reflect on its own war crimes? Since most Japanese don’t think Japan invaded other nations in WW2, they naturally don’t understand that the world sees Japan’s militarization as something that’s potentially problematic. Japanese people generally don’t understand the meanings associated with Japan and Germany re-arming themselves. They don’t understand what the big deal is and why Japan and Germany are not as allowed to arm themselves as other nations. Since most Japanese people don’t think Japan invaded other nations, they are confused when people get nervous about an armed Japan. Whether or not Japan should arm itself in 2026 is one issue, but what is genuinely bizarre is that most Japanese people are discussing this topic without even understanding why Japan isn’t allowed to arm itself in the first place.  

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