Japan’s Foreign Minister Voices Concerns Over Growing Chinese Military Activities

Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya speaks during a bilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not depicted) on the sidelines of the APEC Summit Ministerial Meeting (AMM) at the Convention Center in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 14, 2024. Cris Bouroncle/AFP via Getty Images

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya on Dec. 25 raised Tokyo’s significant concerns, including the Chinese military’s increased activities in disputed waters, during his first visit to Beijing since taking office in October.

After a nearly three-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Iwaya told reporters he used the opportunity to relay Japan’s worries over several issues, including the “situation in the East China Sea” and the Chinese regime’s “unilateral exploitation of resources.”

Iwaya specifically requested that Beijing remove a buoy that Japanese authorities recently identified south of its Yonaguni island, which is located within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

“We believe [the buoy] was installed by China, and we have requested its immediate removal,” he told reporters in Beijing.

Iwaya also met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang earlier on Wednesday.

The one-day visit occurred amid rising tensions between the two largest economies in Asia, fueled by issues ranging from Beijing’s ban on Japanese seafood to ongoing territorial disputes. Tokyo lodged protests earlier this year when a Chinese aircraft carrier entered Japanese contiguous waters following a breach of its airspace by a Chinese military plane.

In light of the growing aggression from communist China, Japan has increased its military spending and strengthened security ties with the United States and other regional allies.

Nonetheless, Iwaya remained optimistic, saying that Tokyo and Beijing had agreed to work together to reduce concerns and increase cooperation.

Iwaya told reporters that the two sides have agreed to hold a security dialog “as early as possible next year.” Moreover, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, will visit Japan next year, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.

The conversation between Iwaya and Wang didn’t lead to the immediate lifting of China’s seafood ban. Still, the two sides agreed to “steadily implement” an agreement reached in September, according to Japan’s summary of the meeting.

As per the readout from the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang reiterated Beijing’s opposition to Japan’s discharge of “nuclear-contaminated water” from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, urging Japan to allow China to collect samples and conduct independent tests.

China’s seafood ban, imposed in August 2023, followed Japan’s decision to pump over a million metric tons of treated water into the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese government has said the treated water is safe, a position backed by the United Nations atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In a July 2023 report submitted to the Japanese government, the agency concluded that the treated wastewater would have a “negligible radiological impact” on people and the environment. Following the IAEA’s endorsement, the European Union moved to lift restrictions on Japanese seafood imports.

Under the deal reached with China in September, Japan committed to expand its long-term international monitoring measures within the IAEA framework, ensuring that all stakeholder countries, including China, can conduct independent sampling and interlaboratory comparisons.

The meetings on Dec. 25 also discussed other thorny issues in bilateral ties, such as the detention of Japanese nationals in China. Iwaya had requested their early release, according to the readout released by Japan’s foreign ministry. He also noted that the lack of transparency surrounding Beijing’s “anti-espionage law” contributes to Japanese people’s hesitations about traveling to China.

Under the anti-espionage law, initially enacted in 2014, 17 Japanese nationals have been detained in China, with five still in custody as of August this year, according to Japan’s House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. In a high-profile case, a Japanese man detained in China since July 2019 was sentenced to 12 years on espionage charges last year, according to Tokyo’s foreign ministry.

Adding to the tensions was an incident in southern China in which a 10-year-old Japanese boy died after being stabbed by a stranger on his way to school on Sept. 18 this year. The stabbing occurred on the anniversary of a 1931 event during a period of war between Japan and China.

The 918 Incident, referring to Sept. 18, 1931—in which a Japanese-owned railway track exploded in the northern Chinese city of Shenyang—marked the start of Japan’s invasion of China, which lasted until 1945, near the end of World War II.

The stabbing incident also represents the second attack against a Japanese citizen in China in less than three months. In response, Japan’s foreign ministry urged Beijing to take immediate action against “unfounded, malicious and anti-Japanese social media posts.”