Based on Yasunosuke Kudan’s column in the monthly magazine Hanada, this chapter critically examines the pro-China support measures promoted by LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike during the spread of the Wuhan virus. It looks back at the Imperial visit to China that helped Beijing return to the international community after the Tiananmen Square incident, and at China’s subsequent anti-Japanese education and intrusions into the waters around the Senkaku Islands, questioning the irresponsibility and naivety of Japanese politics toward the Chinese Communist regime.

June 16, 2020
It was the Imperial visit to China under the Kiichi Miyazawa Cabinet that brought that China “back into the international community.”
What did China give in return?
Anti-Japanese education and intrusions into the territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands.
China does not regard kindness as kindness.

I am republishing a chapter first sent out on February 28, 2020, after correcting one character and changing the paragraphing.
The emphasis in the text, except for headings, is mine.
The following is from Yasunosuke Kudan’s column, published in the monthly magazine Hanada released on the 26th, under the title “The Irresponsibility of Secretary-General Nikai and Governor Koike.”
As I have mentioned before, I infer that Yasunosuke Kudan is a pen name of Masayuki Takayama.
Every Japanese citizen who can read print must take 920 yen times two and go to the nearest bookstore to buy WiLL and Hanada.
I want to deliver this as much as possible to people throughout the world, based on my English translation.

The explosive spread of the new virus that originated in Wuhan shows no sign of stopping.
China already has 68,500 infected people and 1,665 deaths.
As of February 15.
In Japan, too, the number of infected people is increasing day by day, and deaths have begun to occur.
Until then, the main response had been to stop the virus at the water’s edge, but from this point on, measures are required to suppress, by all means, the spread of the virus that has entered the country.
SARS in 2003, MERS that spread in China in 2015, and now this new virus.
Again and again, China is truly a troublesome country that scatters calamity.
The calamities China scatters are not limited to viruses.
Under the banner of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” in reality it scatters the germ of one-party dictatorship into neighboring Tibet, Uyghur, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere.
To such a China, the Liberal Democratic Party Executive Board, on February 10, decided on a policy of sending support money to prevent the spread of the new virus.
It would deduct a uniform 5,000 yen from the March parliamentary allowances of all affiliated Diet members and send it to China.
The proposer was the well-known leading pro-China figure, Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
I want to say: are you in your right mind?
How much anxiety are the Japanese people feeling over the new virus brought in from China?
It is the Japanese people who are suffering damage from China.
And is Nikai not the secretary-general of the ruling party responsible for Japan’s national politics?
If I remember correctly, Nikai’s electoral district is Wakayama, and even from that Wakayama, infected people have already emerged.
The one suffering inconvenience and harm is Japan.
And yet support money is to be sent to China, the country causing that harm?
One can only call it a strange line of thought.
Or is it senility?
At a press conference, Nikai said:
“When something happens to a neighboring country with which we always have friendly relations, it is natural to provide support.”
Always in friendly relations?
Even in the midst of this virus commotion, Chinese government vessels and submarines are calmly intruding into the territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, are they not?
Naturally, some LDP members felt, “This is wrong. It will send the wrong message to China,” and presented Nikai with a written opinion stating, “Whether to provide support money or not should be left to each member’s judgment. Deducting it automatically is outrageous,” and negotiated with him directly.
In response, Nikai said:
“Those who actively wish to support should cooperate. Those who do not wish to cooperate need not do so. That is what I thought from the beginning.”
If he had been thinking from the beginning of voluntary support, he would never have proposed deducting a uniform 5,000 yen from all members.
In short, it was an excuse after he had weakly retreated in the face of protests from members.
Thus Nikai’s foolish proposal was withdrawn on the fourth day.
Even 5,000 yen of a Diet member’s allowance is money entrusted by the people.
If money uniformly deducted from parliamentary allowances is sent to China, that money cannot be called the members’ private money.
Among the people, there must be many who would criticize it by saying, “If you want to do it, do it with your own pocket money.”
That is what the protests by some members meant.
Recently, Nikai asked Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike to “send the masks and protective clothing stocked by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to China.”
Koike sent a total of 120,000 protective suits to China.
Those stocks are property of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, purchased with the blood-tax of Tokyo residents.
If the two disposed of them at their own discretion, Koike is guilty of breach of trust, and Nikai of instigating breach of trust.
Even if the support had passed through a resolution of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, there must be many Tokyo residents who would look coldly at it and say that the two people who proposed it should have paid for it themselves.
This column, written by a Tokyo resident, is one of them.
More than anything else, Japan is now facing anxiety over the spread of an infectious disease.
A situation may come in which large quantities of masks and protective clothing will be needed.
And yet, to release those stocks to China shows an utter lack of crisis awareness and, in light of their duties, is irresponsible.
Even if Japan suffers a shortage of masks, is China what matters most?
The two once belonged together to the New Frontier Party led by Ichiro Ozawa.
Nikai said, “My hobby is Ichiro Ozawa,” and Koike served as Ozawa’s advertising tower.
Later, Ozawa intimidated officials of the Imperial Household Agency and, breaking the rules, had Xi Jinping meet the Emperor.
Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan is scheduled for this April.
It must have been Nikai who proposed and promoted it.
China was once isolated in the world after the Tiananmen Square incident.
It was the Imperial visit to China under the Kiichi Miyazawa Cabinet that brought that China “back into the international community.”
What did China give in return?
Anti-Japanese education and intrusions into the territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands.
China does not regard kindness as kindness.
At present, because of the new virus commotion, Xi Jinping is being looked at coldly both inside and outside his country.
A state-guest visit to Japan may rescue him from his predicament.
Even if it does, there is no guarantee that Abe will not repeat Miyazawa’s mistake.