This article presents Nobuyuki Kaji’s argument concerning the Northern Territories, Takeshima, the Senkaku Islands, and Japan’s diplomatic posture, including his proposal to purchase and stockpile wheat and use it through ODA as a national strategy for deterring China from illegally occupying the Senkaku Islands.

September 6, 2020
The following is taken from the column by the venerable Nobuyuki Kaji that appears at the beginning of this month’s issue of the monthly magazine WiLL.
Most human actions fall into certain patterns.
That does not mean that there is anything extraordinary about them.
Human beings are living creatures and therefore simply act in accordance with the behavioral principles of living creatures.
In a conflict, the fundamental principle is “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
Of course, when one lacks sufficient power, this cannot be achieved, and one has no choice but to suffer in silence.
However, retaliation becomes possible when ingenuity is applied.
Nevertheless, whenever possible, it is better to strengthen one’s countervailing power, achieve a balance, and avoid drastic remedies.
I am led to feel this way because of China’s recent attitude toward the Senkaku Islands—that is, because preparations are being made to occupy the Senkaku Islands.
What can be seen there is the weakness of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs toward China.
Until now, the former Soviet Union and present-day Russia have illegally occupied Japan’s Northern Territories, South Korea has illegally occupied Japan’s Takeshima, and China is attempting to carry out an illegal occupation of Japan’s Senkaku Islands.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is incompetent in dealing with these problems.
I will venture to say that it is “doing nothing.”
In this old man’s view, Japan should demonstrate a deterrent capable of preventing China from illegally occupying the Senkaku Islands and, with the same stroke, resolve the Takeshima issue.
That is what true diplomacy means.
Then what, specifically, should be done?
Sources within the Ministry of Defense advocate strengthening Japan’s military capabilities to counter the Chinese military.
That is only natural, and I hope that everything necessary for that purpose will be put in place.
However, because a struggle is an all-out contest, Japan should wage a variety of battles in fields other than the military.
Let me describe one example.
Strategically speaking, it means striking at the opponent’s various weaknesses.
What, then, is China’s greatest weakness?
The answer is obvious.
It is a shortage of its staple food, wheat.
With the Yangtze River as the dividing line, wheat is the staple food in northern China, while rice is the staple food in the south.
The south has sufficient rice, but the north suffers from a shortage of wheat and therefore imports it.
This becomes clear when one looks at maps and images of China.
Farmland in the north has deteriorated.
The principal reason is that the Yellow River, which supplies it with water, is drying up.
Although the data are from more than ten years ago, China was already importing thirty million tons of wheat annually at that time—an amount equivalent to the annual consumption of three hundred million people.
Its suppliers are the United States, Canada, and Australia.
China cannot stand up to the United States because it fears import restrictions.
The reason Trump has not said a single word about wheat in connection with the US–China trade dispute is that he is keeping it as his trump card.
As long as the United States possesses this wheat card, it will prevail in the US–China trade dispute.
China’s ultimate objective in offering enormous bribes to Australian leaders and acquiring various interests in Australia is to secure a stable supply of wheat.
If that is the case, Japan, as a nation, should spend ten trillion yen—or even one hundred trillion yen if necessary—to acquire and hold wheat.
It goes without saying that Japan’s enormous trading companies should play an active role in doing so.
However, Uichiro Niwa, a man who formerly served as ambassador to China and worked solely to advance China’s interests, came from Itochu Corporation, where he served as president and chairman; it would therefore be prudent to exclude that company in order to maintain secrecy.
Faced with Japan’s purchase and storage of this wheat, China would be forced to approach Japan obsequiously and beg it to sell the wheat as cheaply as possible.
Naturally, Chinese vessels would disappear from the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands.
Japan should discontinue cash-based overseas ODA and use the enormous quantity of wheat it has acquired in its place.
When cash is given to recipient countries through ODA, leading figures skim money from it, whereas wheat provided in kind would reach the people of those countries directly.
Naturally, people at the local level would be free to buy and sell it among themselves.
This old man has been proposing this wheat strategy for several decades, but no one—politicians foremost among them—has listened.
This is the image of the peace-addled Japanese people who rely upon the United States.
Of course, this strategy would not be completed within a short period.
Moreover, because it would constitute a deterrent card for preventing China from undertaking unjust actions, it should be administered and managed by the Cabinet across ministerial and agency boundaries.
As the ancients said, “Attack where the enemy is unprepared, and appear where he does not expect you.”