This is likely insignificant, yet gives some hope. Japan may yet refrain from becoming a pawn, as it would surely be obliterated in a conflict with China. Unfortunately, this is probably but a squabble over blame for imperial incompetence.
Cup half full: either Japan is incompetent or ths US was and is trying to pin the blame on Japan, which will push them away. It could also be a pretext to warn Japan it can be dropped military in an attempt to draw them in, a sort of threat or loyalty test. Either way, imperial disunity favors multipolarity and AES.
We have a lot of weird opposing political elements.
There's the LDP, who are the good American lapdogs. They have been in power uninterrupted since WW2. They're...not popular exactly, but people are so politically apathetic that the people who bother to vote just vote for them almost out of habit. Within them you have the even more right-wing nationalists who drive around with the loudspeaker trucks (if you have been here, you know what I mean) and advocate for a remilitarized Japan.
But we have other sects that are getting more vocal too. Ryukyuu/Okinawa is increasingly upset about the American occupation of their territory; US troops cause endless problems there just like in SK. Everytime US troops pull their bullshit, more and more Japanese want to distance themselves a little bit more from the US. The public is very reticient to remilitarize, and anytime the US tries to push Japan in that direction we tend to balk.
Marxist ideas are still commonly taught in univeristies, and while we have a very large communist party, they are pretty reactionary and have taken a more anti-China stance in recent years to try to broaden their appeal. There have been more local elements, the ones I am involved with at least, that are much more pro-China and trying to push the party back in that direction.
A little bit off-topic, but I would like to know what you think is the average Japanese youth's opinion of China; high school- to university-age students, specifically. I feel like your opinion would be solid since you seem to be living in Japan.
Sorry for the late reply. I can't speak for much younger than around university level. I have been here most of my adult life but I moved to Japan when I was around 18, so don't have the best insight on high school age students. So my observations may not be perfectly accurate.
The average person I have talked to generally doesn't give it much thought. Neutral to positive seems to be the prevailing opinion among a lot of Japanese youth, who are not politically very active. Especially high school students who are so focused on getting into university that the don't have much time for anything else. University age students tend to be a bit more politically involved, and the most common opinion I see is that they share a background and should be cooperating more than they curretly are.
Ryukyu/Okinawans tend to be much more sympathetic to China from my experience. They have been double occupied by both the United States and Japan and are increasingly not happy about it. Every year they get louder in their protests against the US bases around their territory. Even younger people I have talked to in that area have been much more positive towards China. Incidentally, I have noticed that al of aspects of Ryukyu culture stray much closer to Chinese than Japanese. My company has an office there that I visit a couple times per year, so I have had the good fortune to talk to many locals.
There are also the Japanese that are much more fascinated by Western culture, whether that comes from media or overseas study. These tend to be the folks that speak English better and have much more westernized style of thought. A lot of foreigners that come here will probably largely interact with this group, simply for language issues. I don't want to paint with too sweeping a brush because everyone is different, but I have noticed these tend to be the folks who will only date foreigenrs as well and aspire to live overseas. People in this category tend to be much less positive towards China because they have adopted American points of views; heck they tend to not be very positive about Japan either.
The far-right aren't very pro China, they're too nationalistic for that, but you do not see many younger folks involved with them either.
Thank you for the insight.