Pacifist Japan Struggles to Boost Troops as China Anxiety Grows

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) taking part in an exercise on June 9, 2025 at JGSDF Camp Naha in Okinawa Prefecture. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)

By Hiroshi Hiyama

Sporting dark face paint and clutching a gun, teenage soldier-in-training Takuma Hiyane crawls across a field on Japan’s Okinawa, the front line of the nation’s defence as anxiety grows over China’s territorial ambitions.

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by Agence France-Presse

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