Published on September 8, 2016. As both the Obama administration and Japan hesitated, China secured decisive advantages in military, technological, and strategic fields. This essay warns of AI-driven singularity, saturation attacks, and nuclear coercion, and argues that Japan must confront these realities openly with its people and act decisively.

As both the Obama administration and Japan stood by with folded arms, China gained superiority in many fields.
2016-09-08
The following continues from the previous chapter.

In the face of a national defense crisis, there is no option not to fight.

As both the Obama administration and Japan hesitated, China gained superiority across many domains.

By the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the gap in military power between Japan and China will widen to one to five.

According to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, a situation has emerged in which China holds overwhelming advantage and should fight swiftly to secure victory.

It is entirely conceivable that a strengthened China could use nuclear weapons to intimidate Japan.

There are also concerns about saturation attacks that would overwhelm Japan with massive missile strikes, creating a situation impossible to defend against.

China is well aware of Japan’s limited ammunition stockpiles, and would likely calculate that once Japan’s ammunition is nearly exhausted, further attacks would cause Japan to fall.

Artificial intelligence and supercomputers will create a “singularity,” giving rise to a superpower so dominant that no country could even attempt to challenge it once achieved.

Saito Motoaki, who built the world’s most energy-efficient supercomputer for three consecutive years, warns that China could reach this point within a few years.

The singularity refers to an event in which a single supercomputer attains intelligence superior to the combined intellect of all humanity.

China may achieve this by 2020 and come to dominate the world.

Japan must reach that point before China, and this too is a challenge that must be confronted with the full strength of the nation.

Now, Japan’s national power is being tested in every sense.

However, the allied United States has fallen into dysfunction due to its presidential election.

Both presidential candidates have clearly expressed opposition to the TPP.

At the very moment when Japan and the United States should jointly lead in establishing rules for the Asia-Pacific seas that China has turned into disputed waters, the United States is attempting to abandon those rules.

Although the reorganization of international power dynamics is difficult to predict, the importance of Japan’s role is clear.

Japan’s task ultimately comes down to possessing the strength and will not to be eroded by China’s threat.

To that end, Japan should convey the dangerous situation it faces to the public through the fullest possible disclosure of information.

If the people can share an understanding of the terrifying reality of China’s offensive capabilities, they will make wise judgments.

Concealing crisis information from the public—such as China’s maritime platforms built along the median line in the East China Sea, aggressive abnormal close approaches by Chinese fighter jets toward Self-Defense Force aircraft, maritime militias swarming around the Senkaku Islands, saturation attacks that would leave Japan helpless, and even the possibility of nuclear attacks against Japan—deprives the people of their ability to think.

A situation must be created in which the nation thinks together with its people.

Then, above all, listen to the voices of the uniformed members of the Self-Defense Forces, who more than anyone else sincerely wish to avoid war.

Now is the time to urgently carry out large-scale reforms, equipping the Self-Defense Forces with the defense equipment and personnel they deem necessary to avoid war, and even doubling the defense budget.

The historic mission of the Liberal Democratic Party, in the face of this great crisis, is to explain sincerely to the people that revising the Preamble of the Constitution and Article 9, Paragraph 2, will determine Japan’s fate.