SNA (Tokyo) — In this excerpt from the Shingetsu News Agency‘s exclusive interview with former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the former Japanese leader’s criticism of Abe diplomacy and his view of the “China threat” is discussed.

Yukio Hatoyama: Prime Minister Abe is making mischief as he addresses the nation, for example, regarding the threat from China. I do not believe that it does any good at all for either country to talk provocatively about threats. Certainly, the Chinese military capability has been expanding at considerable speed. However, instead of just saying that it is a threat, I believe that more effort needs to be made in foreign diplomacy to find a way to get along well with each other and to cooperate. Increasing military strength as a means of deterrence is only going to provoke an opponent. As a result, opponents simply increase their own military strength more and more. Then, Japan will match this by cooperating with the United States, and as a result, tensions will be very high. It could reach a peak of such volatility that a small incident could become a large and unrestrained conflict. I do not believe for a moment that increasing military strength will show any results as a deterrent. If one is talking about deterrence, rather than seeing each other as a threat, it would be far better to find a way to get along and to cooperate. That would be a far bigger deterrent – or so I believe.

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