Based on Yoshiko Sakurai’s Sankei Shimbun essay, this article examines how the coronavirus crisis exposed Japan’s and the world’s dangerous dependence on China. It discusses the limits of Japan’s emergency declaration, the irresponsibility of opposition parties, the need for a “China plus one” strategy, and the CCP’s threats over masks and pharmaceuticals as a matter of national security.

April 6, 2020
But what the coronavirus has clearly revealed is that, if we continue to view the China problem only on the economic level, our country will one day suffer terribly.
The following is from an essay by Yoshiko Sakurai, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “The Danger of Dependence on China Exposed.”
This essay proves the correctness of what I have continued to say: that she is a “national treasure” as defined by Saicho.
Emphasis in the text is mine.
This is a national crisis.
In the midst of the crisis of the spread of the novel coronavirus originating from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, the key to our country’s overcoming this national crisis lies in whether the government and the people can cooperate as one.
Can politicians and the people alike devote themselves to the single purity once advocated by Shinpei Goto?
More than a hundred fields of learning, more than a thousand experiences, the purity of each and every person making wholehearted efforts becomes the power that saves Japan from national crisis.
Attention is focused on when the government will declare a state of emergency.
But unlike other countries, Japan’s state of emergency declaration can hardly issue orders.
Its characteristic is its kindness and looseness, stopping at requests and instructions.
The structure of our country as a state is not one in which the government commands and the people obey.
That is precisely why the task cannot be achieved without cooperation between the government and the people.
Because Japan is a country that cannot exercise force, unless the government is wiser and more perceptive than any government of any other country, our country will not endure.
Unless each citizen also wisely exercises self-restraint, people will become as unrestrained as they please, and again our country will not endure.
Because we lack the strong mechanisms that are natural in ordinary countries, our country has no choice but to preserve itself through the wisdom of the government and the people.
If by any chance the government becomes a foolish government like the former Democratic Party government, and the people run toward egocentrism, our country will lose its strength markedly.
Let us remember the virtues of Japan.
Do not cause trouble for others.
Be useful for the sake of others.
Illuminate one corner of society.
Let all generations recall these values that the Japanese people have cherished, and let us put them into practice in daily life.
If we do so, we will surely defeat the virus.
When the people believe that they can trust the government, they will surely cooperate.
That is precisely why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should speak to the people in his own words.
The government will surely protect the people.
The people may trust the government.
In order to suppress the coronavirus, the government requested self-restraint, and the movement of people was restricted.
The economy cooled rapidly, and service industries and freelancers, whose demand literally disappeared, are all crying out in distress.
Small and medium-sized enterprises and microbusinesses are also having serious cash-flow difficulties.
On April 3, Fumio Kishida, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council, announced that households whose income had decreased would receive 300,000 yen per household, but the actual payment would apparently come in May.
Is this not too late?
The people are seeking a swift response.
The United States legislated cash payments to its citizens in ten days.
Why does Japan take this much time?
Even allowing for the stubborn structure of the Diet, the responsibility of both the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito is great.
At the same time, as if they were not thinking about the infections and victims increasing day by day, the opposition parties, which can engage only in nonconstructive debates unrelated to crisis measures, are utterly irresponsible.
In particular, the Constitutional Democratic Party is beyond words.
This political degeneration itself is one of the greatest national crises Japan now faces.
The coronavirus problem has exposed the fact that not only Japan but the entire world had fallen into a vulnerable condition of dependence on China.
The virus problem is not merely a matter of public health.
It is a problem that questions the very foundation of national security.
Until now, both Japan’s business community and the government have viewed Japan-China relations mainly from an economic perspective.
But now is the time to change that perspective.
In fact, amid the review of supply chains, “China plus one” is once again beginning to be emphasized as a strategy.
“China plus one” has been discussed before.
However, it was only an idea based on economic factors such as labor costs.
It must be said that, when Japanese companies advanced into China, they focused too much on profit and did not think about the future consequences that dealings with China would bring.
Even when history was fabricated, even when intellectual property was stolen, even when territory was targeted, they did not withdraw.
Nor did they sue and fight.
Although they are profit-seeking companies, even when the valuable property that is intellectual property was stolen, many Japanese companies adopted the attitude that they need only devise something still better.
Is this resignation, or servility?
Dazzled by immediate profit, they cannot see the great losses of the future, the irrecoverable defeat.
But what the coronavirus has clearly revealed is that, if we continue to view the China problem only on the economic level, our country will one day suffer terribly.
China’s strategy is, in a sense, easy to understand.
China, which produces 80 percent of the international community’s masks, is now conducting mask diplomacy.
Masks have also been presented to local governments in our country.
Behind the scenes, however, the masks of Japanese companies that had been producing masks in China for Japan were confiscated, including all inventories.
Under the National Defense Mobilization Law enacted in 2010, even foreign companies must obey the orders of the Chinese government in times of emergency.
The confiscation of masks happened because it was bound to happen.
It is a foolish structure in which masks belonging to Japanese companies are confiscated by the Chinese government, then China presents them to Japan as Chinese goodwill, and Japanese people gratefully rejoice.
Let us also look at the influenza drug Avigan.
Prime Minister Abe said that Avigan, sold by Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, a pharmaceutical company under Fujifilm Holdings, is effective against the coronavirus.
The company began clinical trials of Avigan in Japan on March 31.
On the other hand, in China, clinical trials of favipiravir, the active ingredient of Avigan, had already been completed, and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced the effectiveness of Avigan.
Fujifilm’s patent in China has already expired, and the licensing agreement has also ended.
Therefore, even if Chinese-made Avigan is used in large quantities around the world, it will not contribute to Fujifilm’s profits.
Not only Japan but also the United States has entered into business relations with China in a form that effectively handed advanced pharmaceutical technologies to China.
In the end, the technology is taken, we have no choice but to depend on China’s supply of pharmaceuticals, and China gains leverage over us.
What happens as a result?
In this sense, the following passage from an editorial published on March 4 by Xinhua, the official media organ of the Chinese Communist Party, deserves attention.
“China can also impose export controls on pharmaceuticals. In that case, the United States will sink into the great sea of coronavirus.”
This is precisely a threat that takes the lives of the people hostage.
Both the Japanese government and Japanese companies must rethink relations with China by adding the element of national security.
First, let us defeat the “Wuhan virus” by uniting the strength of the people, and let us also review the state of emergency declaration.
Let us amend the Constitution and correct the structure of the Japanese state, which is only gentle, into a proper form.