The following is an excerpt from an article by the real journalist Sasaki Rui, published in the monthly magazine WiLL on the 23rd under the title "Currying favor with China Grand Prix."
The preamble has been omitted.
Kawakatsu is, as everyone knows, the "man who stopped the linear."
According to one estimate, the lost economic effect amounts to tens of trillions of yen.
Mr. Kawakatsu says, "I have never held back the Linear in any way to hasten its opening," but he has obstructed it on the grounds of environmental problems.
His behavior makes one wonder whether he was trying to curry favor with his rival, China, in developing the Linear.
In the past, Mr. Kawakatsu has spoken proudly of his "love" for the Chinese Communist Party.
In an interview with the overseas edition of the People's Daily Japan Monthly (electronic edition dated February 25, 2020), he expressed his admiration for the vision of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which is China's plan for a vast economic bloc, saying, "I admire the vision of the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, which links the Silk Roads of land and sea. It is a spectacular thing to see the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative being realized from Eurasia to Africa."
The Japan-China Friendship League is a "maneuvering organization."
The first front-runner in the West is the Minister of State for Digital Policy, Mr. Masayuki Taira of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Like the Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party, Mr. Hiroshi Moriyama, Mr. Taira is a member of the Japan-China Friendship League. As a core member of the Japan-China Development Association, he frequently visits China.
In June 2019, the Jamestown Foundation, a research organization in Washington, issued a report titled "Investigating the Chinese Communist Party's Influence Operations in Japan," in which it warned that "the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department and other organs are often used for political operations in Japan."
I want to appoint Mr. Moriyama to the position of the first front-runner.
As a core member of the Japan-China Parliamentary League, he visited China in mid-January.
The purpose of the visit was to participate in the ruling party exchange conference, which had not been held for seven years, but this was nothing more than a trap set by the Chinese side.
On the 8th, just before he visited China, Mr. Moriyama said at a meeting in Kumamoto City, "The world is becoming inward-looking. The champion of inward-looking is the next US president, Trump. I am very concerned about the direction of things."
It is pathetic that he is saying this while watching the Chinese reaction.
Is he also planning to inherit the Chinese interests of former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai?
Next, the three top positions.
I want to nominate Shimpei Matsushita, a member of the House of Councillors and the Liberal Democratic Party, for the position of komusubi in the West.
Mr. Matsushita was on good terms with Chinese groups, such as when he gave a Chinese woman his business card as a secretary in charge of diplomacy.
From April 1, 2020, he also served as a senior advisor to China's unofficial 110th emergency number (black police) for two years.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is currently searching his home on suspicion of fraud.
The former representative of the Komeito Party, Natsuo Yamaguchi, is ranked as a komusubi in the East.
In Yamaguchi's case, rather than being a personal achievement, he achieved a position in the san'yaku ranks due to his role as the representative of a party that has traditionally had close ties with China.
Yamaguchi visited China in November 2023 and met with Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, who holds the fifth highest position in the party, and Liu Jianchao, the director of the Central Department of Foreign Affairs (Chuandui Bu), which is the party's external contact point.
It will be Mr. Yamaguchi's seventh visit to China since becoming the representative in 2009.
In the western sekiwake position, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who resigned as chairman of the Japan-China Parliamentary League of Friendship just before becoming foreign minister, is aiming for a higher position.
At a press conference on July 12, 2022, Hayashi was asked by a reporter about Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-te's visit to Japan to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
He responded with a comment such as "As for the person you mentioned...", which led to a strong protest from the All-Japan Taiwan Federation, who said things like "It was insulting" and "His words and actions are a disgrace to Japan, a country of civility."
It is hard to imagine that Hayashi, who was forced to explain himself, would respond similarly to a senior US official.
There is no doubt that he was considerate of China.
The east sekiwake is the loopy (meaning "foolish") former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
Mr. Hatoyama has not only gone to China but also to South Korea, where he has groveled in front of the former site of Seodaemun Prison and made a mock apology, wandering around at the beck and call of anti-Japanese countries and disgracing Japan and the Japanese people.
In terms of policy, it has announced the "East Asian Community Initiative" that excludes the United States, which has significantly damaged Japan-US relations.
In both cases, China was given consideration.
Chinese business is a "hindrance"
The western jōdai-ozeki is occupied by Katsuya Okada, Secretary General of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
The term jōdai is no longer used, but here, we use the term jōdai deliberately to maintain a ranking system even for ozeki.
In August 2024, Mr. Okada visited China with a delegation of party members and met with Liu Jianchao, director of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, in Beijing.
At a press conference on September 12, 2023, Mr. Okada expressed a pro-Chinese view, saying that "the Japanese government is also quite responsible" for China's decision to impose a total ban on Japanese seafood products in response to the release of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean.
As his family business, Aeon, has more than 20 stores in China, some in political circles believe he is being overly considerate of China.
The grand champion of the East is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Mr. Ishiba has appointed pro-China and pro-Chinese lawmakers, such as Mr. Taira, to his cabinet.
There is a risk that he will fall into China's trap from the perspective of opposing Trump and cause a rift in Japan-US relations, so we must be vigilant.
On the TBS television program on December 29, 2024, Mr. Ishiba said, "It is essential for the Japanese prime minister to visit China. The relationship of trust between leaders cannot be built on appearances alone, so it is necessary to repeat the visit."
While he has not been able to meet with US President Trump, he has shown a lack of diplomatic sense in expressing his desire to visit China.
He does not seem to understand that the Japan-US relationship is like a work of glass.
The eastern seiza is former Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa.
On the west side is former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
Speaking of Ozawa, in December 2009, when he was still Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Japan, he led a large delegation of 600 people to China to curry favor with President Hu Jintao.
He strongly appealed to both within and outside the party about his ability.
Immediately after this, he bent the Imperial Household Agency's customary practice, invited then-Vice President Xi Jinping to Japan, and forced him to have an audience with the Emperor.
The suspicion that he used the Emperor for political purposes has not been cleared up.
At a press conference on June 1, 2020, Mr. Nika said, "It is not appropriate to comment on the political actions of other countries. Wouldn't it be better just to observe?" when China decided to introduce a national security law to suppress the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
In 2000, when he was Minister of Transport, he led 5,000 people in the travel industry on a visit to China, surprising President Jiang Zemin.
Nika was so intent on building a statue of Jiang that it was astonishing.
In 2015, when he was the LDP General Affairs Chairman, he led a 3,000-strong delegation to China to pay homage to President Xi Jinping.
The pandas in his home prefecture of Wakayama are innocent, but even they seem like agents.
The grand champion has arrived!
At last, it's the grand champion.
The western banner is Taro Kono, the former minister in charge of digital affairs.
The eastern banner is Yasuo Fukuda, the former prime minister.
Speaking of Mr. Kono, there is the issue of the Chinese logo.
A former private-sector member of the Cabinet Office Task Force (TF) led by Mr. Kono included the logo of a Chinese state-run power company in the materials he submitted.
It was in March 2024.
Was there any room for the exercise of undue influence by China?
There are suspicions that business dealings with China by companies with close family ties influence policy decisions.
Even after retiring from politics, former Prime Minister Fukuda has continued to be active as the "throat and tongue (billboard)" of the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2022, the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, he appeared frequently in Chinese media, praising China's economic and foreign policies as "successful".
He has even been appointed as a special advisor to a group of Chinese students in Japan, and he is so pro-China that he is almost always seen at events in Tokyo related to Japan-China relations.
While there is nothing wrong with the exchange itself, he says that we should also say things that are painful for China to hear, such as about human rights and the Senkaku Islands.
The other yokozuna in the West is former House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono.
The Kono family has proudly held the rank of yokozuna for father and son.
There is no doubt that they will leave a stain on the history of Japanese politics.
Yohei Kono, who is known for the "Kono Statement," in which he fabricated the forced abduction of comfort women, is not only pro-Korean but also pro-Chinese.
As the chairman of the Japan International Trade Promotion Association, in 2021, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, he sent a message saying, "The Chinese Communist Party has united the Chinese people and led them to the construction and improvement of socialism" (China Central Television).
The true mark of Yohei Kono is the episode in Taiwan.
In 1995, when he was Foreign Minister, his plane made an emergency landing in Taipei due to a typhoon while on a trip abroad.
Mr. Kono did not get off the plane but waited on board for several hours.
It can only be described as absurd.
Let's not forget the pro-China legends.
Before announcing the new grand champion, let's have the former grand champions who became "legends of China-baiting" appear.
They are former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and former Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party Koichi Kato.
Speaking of Hashimoto, he is a honey trap.
Honey traps are a specialty of China and one of their powerful information operations.
It is a plot in which female agents entice men to obtain confidential information or to blackmail them by holding their weaknesses over them.
The honey trap against Hashimoto was discovered in 1996.
It was found that he had a close relationship with a Chinese woman interpreter who had a Chinese government official as her husband and had also worked at the Chinese embassy in Japan.
The problem was that this woman was an intelligence operative for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
While having a relationship with Hashimoto, she was suspected of lobbying for an increase in ODA (Official Development Assistance) to China.
The two met in the late 1970s at the Hotel New Otani.
The woman dropped her white handbag before Hashimoto and asked him to pick it up.
Hashimoto was captivated by the woman's beauty, but it was highly probable that it was a prearranged ruse (News Post Seven, August 26, 2014).
Next, Koichi Kato.
He is a Foreign Ministry's China School graduate and has served as Director of the China Division.
A woman from the Communist Youth League of China (the Communist Youth League) was working as a trainee in his office and could move freely around the Diet building.
Mr. Kato has also been quoted as scathingly criticizing the prime minister's visits to Yasukuni Shrine (Gendai NPO, February 16, 2006).
The Hope of the Pro-China World Appears
Well, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.
The first champion of the prestigious B1 Grand Prix, Foreign Minister Tsuyoshi Iwaya, has been decided.
He is the eastern grand champion.
At the end of 2024, the YouTube channel "Daily Will," run by the monthly magazine "Will," called for votes for "Who are the pro-China and pro-China Diet members?" Foreign Minister Iwaya came out in first place.
I agree with him about the early days of the Reiwa era.
After all, the head of a Chinese company indicted by the US Department of Justice testified that he had given bribes to Mr. Iwaya.
As soon as his name came up in the investigation, he was disqualified as foreign minister.
At a November 29, 2024 press conference, Iwaya denied the allegations, saying, "I think this is already over. There is no truth to the fact that I received money from a Chinese company."
Still, the allegations have not been cleared up.
The eyes of the public, both in Japan and overseas, are on Iwaya, the secretary-general of the International Tourism Industry Promotion Diet Members' Federation.
This non-partisan organization effectively controls the IR Diet Members' Federation.
Like Mr. Ishiba, he could not visit the US, but Mr. Iwaya happily visited China in late December 2024 and announced a significant easing of visas for Chinese visitors to Japan.
There is no evidence that this was discussed thoroughly in Japan, and it was a reckless move by Foreign Minister Iwaya.
It is thought that this was a response to China's announcement of lifting the ban on Japanese seafood and easing visas for Japanese people visiting China, but this is precisely China's strategy.
They raise their fists in the air and threaten Japan in areas where there are no problems, and when Japan flinches and makes concessions, they bring their fists down.
In other words, it's like taking money from someone and saying, "I'll give it back, so give me something else."
Some people think that the lifting of the ban on seafood exports was aimed at placating the feelings of the Japanese people in the wake of the murder of a Japanese boy in Shenzhen, China.
What is true diplomacy?
The above is my own arbitrary ranking.
I want to convey that diplomacy with China that is not influenced by personal feelings is different from being pro-China or friendly towards China.
That is why I did not include former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, who achieved the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, or former LDP Secretary-General Hiromu Nonaka, who was close to Zeng Qinghong, who served as Vice President of China and was a close aide to President Jiang Zemin.
It is because he is highly regarded for having achieved sound government-to-government diplomacy and parliamentary diplomacy with China, both as prime minister and as a member of the Diet.
The Chinese Communist Party elite, who have been waging a life-and-death power struggle within the party, are not as "soft" as Japanese Diet members.
The words of a former director of the China Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a graduate of the Foreign Ministry's China School, are particularly striking.
Although he speaks from the perspective of someone weak-kneed himself, his words are worth listening to.
"If you flatter the Chinese leaders, they will look down on you. The more you say things they don't want to hear, the more they will trust you and listen to what you say. That's their mentality."
