What lies behind the strangely soft attitude of politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists toward China? Yoichi Takahashi’s account of his experience as a bureaucrat reveals the reality of China’s honey-trap operations and their terrifying cost-effectiveness.

May 1, 2020
When I myself visited China during my time as a bureaucrat, an extraordinarily beautiful Chinese female civil servant came to my room alone.
Mr. Takahashi had once said somewhere that Hiroko Yakushimaru was his type, and he was surprised because someone who looked exactly like her came.
In the chapter I sent out the other day, I wrote the following.
A well-read friend of mine asserted that among people in Japan’s political world, economic world, and world of opinion, those who have visited China not just once but several times have almost one hundred percent been caught in honey traps.
The moment I searched how to translate the phrase “have been caught in honey traps” into English, an article appeared before me that proved, one hundred percent, that the chapter I had sent out was correct.
The emphases in the text other than the headline are mine.

Politicians and bureaucrats who are soft on China have been caught in honey traps.
Yoichi Takahashi.
March 21, 2020.

A cost-effective honey trap.
On Toranomon News, Yoichi Takahashi’s answer to a question from Kaori Arimoto was convincing.
Regarding the spread of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, Ms. Arimoto asked whether Japan’s response toward China was too soft.
Mr. Yoichi Takahashi answered based on his own experience during his time at the Ministry of Finance.
“Because they have been caught in honey traps.”
When I myself visited China during my time as a bureaucrat, an extraordinarily beautiful Chinese female civil servant came to my room alone.
Mr. Takahashi had once said somewhere that Hiroko Yakushimaru was his type, and he was surprised because someone who looked exactly like her came.
They are probably setting this up for everyone.
Compared with waging war, it has “the best cost performance.”
Mr. Takahashi had once wondered why a senior colleague went to China on business accompanied by his wife, and when he asked about it, he was told, “It is dangerous, so be careful.”
That is why he was not caught.
But he also said that if he had not heard that warning, he might have been in danger.
This does not apply only to government officials.
Newspaper reporters also change when they go to China.
He said that he thinks it is indeed honey traps.
He said that he thinks many people are caught by them.
Ippei Ijima also said that there was a politician, a member of the parliamentary league on the abduction issue, who had been extremely hardline, but after going to China and coming back, he changed overnight.
He did not say who it was.
Mr. Takahashi said that this was only his own hypothesis, but the probability seems high.
This is a different matter, but I remembered that Miki Otaka had previously taken up the circumstances of organ trafficking in China.
She said that the reason politicians and leading figures around the world are tolerant toward China is that they themselves, or their families or relatives, have received organ transplants and therefore China holds their weaknesses.
She also introduces Tomomi Shimizu’s Twitter posts on the oppression of the Uyghurs.