by Zhou Xin

On March 24, an active-duty officer of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) broke into the Chinese embassy in Tokyo with a knife. Although more than two weeks have passed, the Japanese authorities still refuse to issue a formal apology.

Some members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan in charge of foreign affairs have even attempted to shift the blame, questioning why the Chinese embassy has detained the intruder for so long and falsely accusing the Chinese side of possible "illegal detention" and "interrogation."

This is truly absurd and a typical case of the thief crying "stop thief."

Japan's attempts to evade responsibility and play the blame game have not only outraged the Chinese public but also severely damaged Japan's own credibility and international standing. Even many ordinary Japanese citizens are appalled by their government's acts.

The facts of the incident are crystal clear. The intruder is no ordinary person but an active-duty SDF officer. He did not break into an ordinary premise but a diplomatic mission protected by international law.

His acts are outrageous: climbing over the embassy's wall with a 31 cm-long knife, lurking in the bushes for a long time, and openly threatening to kill Chinese diplomats "in the name of God" -- which cannot be characterized as an "expression of personal opinion."

Despite the egregious nature of the incident and the special status of the perpetrator, the Japanese government has tried to pass it off as a "personal act," and referred it to the prosecutors merely as a case of "building intrusion."

It is only justified that the Chinese side has lodged strong protests.

Yet, instead of living up to its duty and responsibility as the host country, the Japanese government has tried to get away with it with a perfunctory expression of "regret."

Even worse, some members of Japan's ruling party have tried to portray the offender as a victim and slandered China. Doesn't China have the legal right to question the intruder who forcefully broke into its embassy with a knife and find out "who he is" and "what he was up to?" Of course, it does -- just as any country would do in such circumstances.

In fact, evading responsibility and shifting blame have long been Japan's tactics.

On historical issues, Japan has pursued systematic revisionism: distorting aggression as "incursion" by falsifying history textbooks, referring to the Nanjing Massacre as the "Nanjing Incident," and denying the forced conscription of laborers and sex slaves. Under the influence of this distorted view of history, Japan has never truly reflected on its war crimes, feels no remorse for the catastrophic suffering it inflicted on Asian countries, and regards its defeat in World War II -- rather than its aggression -- as its mistake.

It even peddles the fallacy that "there is merit in aggression" and portrays itself as a victim of the atomic bombings. The consequence is that militarism lingers, and the Japanese society as a whole is drifting further toward right-wing extremism.

In recent years, Japan has accelerated its dangerous moves to break free from the post-WWII international order.

Legally, it has lifted the ban on collective self-defense and pushed to revise Article 9 of its "Peace Constitution," seeking to shed constitutional constraints and reinstate regular armed forces, the right to belligerence, and the capability to wage foreign wars.

Militarily, it has increased its defense budget for 14 consecutive years, strengthened deployments on its southwestern islands, aggressively developed "capability to attack enemy bases," sped up the deployment of offensive long-range missiles, and openly discussed revising its "three non-nuclear principles."

To justify these moves, Japanese right-wing politicians have deliberately painted China as an imaginary enemy, wildly hyped the "China threat," stoked anti-China xenophobia, and clamored that "a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency" -- all in an attempt to resurrect militarism under the pretext of "defense."

This embassy intrusion is by no means accidental. Japanese social media has revealed that the SDF has long invited extreme anti-China right-wing figures to give lectures, and its teaching materials are filled with distorted, whitewashed accounts of Japan's acts of aggression.

A retired senior officer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force has become the chief priest of the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals. Japan's National Defense Academy has made it an annual "tradition" to organize a 70-km overnight march to pay collective visits to Yasukuni. Recently, Masato Ushio, a former SDF officer, frankly admitted that within the SDF, everyone from the top down regards China as a "threat" and presumably harbors anti-China sentiments. And the Chinese embassy intruder who vowed to kill Chinese diplomats "in the name of God" is just a 23-year-old young officer.

All this speaks volumes about how deeply the poison of militarism has seeped into Japan, and it is truly alarming. If the Japanese government condones and covers up such acts, it will only incur more serious consequences.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of rational voices in Japan regarding the March 24 break-in at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo.

Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, stated that Japan, as the host country, has failed to fulfill its responsibility and obligation to protect foreign missions and diplomats, and that the Japanese government should apologize and handle the matter seriously.

Atsushi Koketsu, professor emeritus at Yamaguchi University, has urged Japan's defense minister and foreign minister to immediately visit the Chinese embassy and apologize. Many more have called on the Japanese government to engage in serious self-reflection and correct its mistakes.

Large groups of Japanese citizens have spontaneously taken to the streets to protest, urging the Takaichi cabinet to formally apologize to China. Some Japanese netizens have sharply criticized their own government and apologized to China on its behalf.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government should heed these voices, and put things right by thoroughly investigating the incident and apologizing to the Chinese side.

This embassy intrusion is a mirror -- reflecting the real threat posed by the rise of Japan's "neo-militarism." That mirror will not be shattered by the Japanese government's perfunctory attitude. Instead, it will constantly remind the world that denying a history of aggression and evading diplomatic responsibility will never win trust, but only invite condemnation.

Editor's note: The author is an observer on international affairs.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Xinhua News Agency.