Around 10,000 Japanese protested in Tokyo on March 10 against Prime Minister Sanaie Takaichi’s pro-war and pro-US policy. They opposed Takaichi’s deployment of long-range missiles across the country, including the recent deployment of missile launchers Kumamoto Prefecture, a residential area. They also rejected the regime’s plan to revise the rule that prohibits Japan from exporting lethal weapons to other countries.

These militarist measures follow the US-Japan strategy to strengthen US military power in Asia and to raise Japan’s defense spending in preparation for a war against China. Takaichi earlier deployed long-range missiles on the islands of Kumamoto and Yonaguni, located near Taiwan.

Takaichi is rushing to meet the US President Donald Trump’s demand to raise Japan’s military spending to 3.5% of GDP in exchange for maintaining the current level of US-Japan relations. She is often compared to Trump for her “Japan First” policy (a copy of “America First”), anti-immigrant stance, and warmongering against China. She already increased Japan’s military budget to 2% of GDP or ₱70–₱85 billion in 2025. For decades, Japan strictly limited its military spending to 1.0% of GDP.

The protesters said Takaichi’s measures violate constitutional provisions that bar Japan from engaging in war, as well as heighten tensions across Asia. They believe Takaichi’s policies gravely endangers the Japanese people.

“Amid the US’s continuing push to strengthen its hegemony, Japan has chosen to go along and collaborate with Washington while advancing its own militarist expansion,” an official of the Japan Communist Party, one of the protest organizers, said. “This contradicts the goal of maintaining peace and stability in the region.”

An increasing number of Japanese citizens, including youth who participated en masse in the protest, are alarmed by the looming threat of war.