Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

China on Monday urged Japanese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into a recent security breach at its embassy in Tokyo, adding that the military officer who broke into the embassy had undergone nine months of reserve officer training in the Self-Defense Forces, and "what kind of ideas were instilled in him by the Self-Defense Forces and what sort of education he received during that process?"

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks on Tuesday in response to a media inquiry on that according to reports, the Self-Defense Forces officer who broke into the Chinese Embassy in Japan with a knife had been referred to prosecutors by Japanese police.

Mao said that the incident has exposed the deep and harmful influence of right-wing thinking and a distorted view of history in Japan. According to reports, Japan's National Defense Academy has a practice of collectively visiting Yasukuni Shrine every year. In 2024, a former senior Maritime Self-Defense Force officer even became a priest of Yasukuni Shrine, marking the first time a retired Self-Defense Forces general had taken up that role. The Self-Defense Forces have also long invited extreme anti-China right-wing figures to participate in teaching, while training materials are said to be filled with distortions and glorification of Japan's World War II aggression. 

Both the officer who illegally entered the Chinese Embassy and his parents claimed he had shown no extremist tendencies while growing up and studying in his hometown, and that they had no idea why he would do such a thing, said Mao.

"The rightward drift of Japan's Self-Defense Forces and Japan's remilitarization deserve a high level of vigilance from the international community. China once again urges Japan to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and to prevent similar incidents from happening again at the root," Mao said.

Global Times