Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi wants the enemy state clauses of the UN Charter scrapped, drawing attention to wartime wording that Beijing is keen to keep, Kyodo News reported on October 11.
The campaign has become another front in the worsening relationship between Tokyo and Beijing. China has sharpened its accusations that Japan is remilitarising under Takaichi, who is raising defence spending and capabilities in response to what her government sees as a deteriorating regional security environment. Relations fell sharply after she told parliament last November that a Chinese attack on self-governing Taiwan could draw a response from Japan's Self-Defence Forces.
The clauses refer to the countries defeated in World War II, among them Japan, Germany and Italy. They permit enforcement action against these states without Security Council approval if the goal is to stop a revival of aggressive policies. A 1995 General Assembly resolution described the provisions as obsolete and called for their early removal. A 2005 World Summit outcome document, supported by China among others, agreed to delete them, but the wording has never been taken out.
In her first address to the UN General Assembly in New York in September, Takaichi said the clauses had to go. She became the first sitting Japanese leader in more than 20 years to raise the matter, the last being then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.
People close to Takaichi said she insisted on including the issue while the speech was being drafted. She has previously described the clauses as deeply humiliating. A source in the prime minister's office said Beijing was the reason for her focus, noting that China had once backed deletion but now argues the provisions still apply.
Last November, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo cited the clause on social media, arguing that the UN's founding members keep the right to act should Japan commit aggression again. China holds one of the five permanent Security Council seats.
After the speech, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing opposed removing the clauses because they exist to stop fascism and militarism from threatening world peace again.
A Japanese diplomatic source said China might be trying to divide Japan and the US by shaping perceptions. A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official described the clauses as dead letters.
Takaichi has pledged to keep urging other countries to work towards deletion. On October 7 she told parliament that no country had any remaining grounds to invoke them.