ASAHI NO NISHISEI - Rising Sun Goes West (1)

VOL. 3 - Settings and Documents

Sino-Japanese military clash off Senkaku Islands

A military clash that took place off the Senkaku Islands in January 2019. It was triggered by an attack on the Japan Coast Guard by armed Chinese ships and their landing on the Senkaku Islands, and later developed into a battle between the People's Liberation Army Navy and the Maritime Self-Defense Force. After the US Forces Japan entered the battle, the PLAN immediately retreated, and it is said that it was a kind of performance by the Chinese Communist Party to suppress the discontent and distrust of the Chinese people, which was amplified by the stalling economy, or that it was the sole decision of the Nanjing Military Region. However, Japan could not ignore the damage by the ship-to-surface missile attack on some of the inhabited islands in the Nansei Islands, resulting in civilian casualties, and public opinion in Japan rapidly shifted to the right.

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East Asia War

In December 2019, the Chinese Civil War broke out, triggered by the revolt of the Shenyang Military Region, which was not satisfied with the outcome of the military clash between Japan and China off the Senkaku Islands. In November 2022, the New People's Democratic Republic of China (commonly known as New China, the military government of the PLA that rebelled against the Chinese government), which took Beijing from the People's Republic of China, was established, and along with its ally North Korea, declared war on neighboring countries (Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea). It was later called World War III.

After Beijing was taken, the CCP fled to Chengdu and Tibet, where they established the Chengdu Provisional Central Government. They resisted using nuclear warheads stored in Tibet as a deterrence.

At the end of the war, India, Russia, and Mongolia entered the war against the New China, and the New China surrendered in January 2024. The East Asia War ended with North Korea's surrender in March 2024. The defeat led to the collapse of the New People's Democratic Republic of China and the return of the CCP to power. In exchange for reconstruction aid, the CCP agreed to the demands of the victorious nations, including the downsizing of the People's Liberation Army, the stationing of a multinational force, and international joint control of its nuclear weapons.

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Japanese Constitution, Self-Defense Forces

In the wake of the Sino-Japanese military clash off the Senkaku Islands in January 2019 and the Chinese Civil War that broke out in December 2019, Article 9, Section 2 of the Constitution was amended.

As a result, the raison d'etre of the SDF was changed, and it was officially established as Japan's "military". As for the name of the SDF, since many people in Japan are attached to the name "SDF," the name "SDF/Japanese Armed Forces" is usually used in combination in official situations in Japan. The English translation is "Japan Armed Forces". It is also common to use the old and new rank styles in the same sentences.

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Akagi-class fighter destroyer

A fighter-carrying escort ship commissioned in March 2025, the Akagi is the first postwar escort ship designed primarily for aircraft takeoff and landing. In the wake of the 2019 military clash between China and Japan off the Senkaku Islands, which resulted in casualties, the Japanese government has taken a serious look at the situation and, fueled by a rightward tilt in public opinion, has made China a virtual enemy in its defense guidelines and revised its 31-32 DD plan substantially in order to strengthen the capabilities for preemptive strikes against the enemy, air defense, and remote area attacks, mainly for the purpose of dealing with China. And the first postwar fleet carrier, the Akagi, was completed in 2025. However, the East Asia War broke out in 2022 while it was still under construction. The Japanese government hastened the completion of the aircraft carrier with the aim of deploying it for operations, but after the full-scale entry of the United States and the entry of Russia and India at the end of the war, the East Asia War came to an end in March 2024. Akagi was derided as the "Kii of the Heisei era", in analogy with the Kii, one of the proposed naming schemes for the former super Yamato-class battleships, which were only planned and never saw the light of day in the Pacific War.