Japan must learn from Israel's unwavering determination in confronting Iran's nuclear ambitions, a former senior advisor to late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, told Israel Hayom in an exclusive conversation.
The advisor, Dr. Tomohiko Taniguchi, is currently a special advisor to Fujitsu Future Studies Center and previously worked with the Abe as his primary foreign policy speech writer.
Taniguchi argued that Israel's recent strikes on Iran, which began on June 13 as part of Operation Rising Lion to remove the threat of annihilation from the terrorist regime in Tehran, have provided "a great service" that Japan should emulate as it faces mounting nuclear threats from hostile neighbors.
In the wide-ranging interview, Taniguchi told Israel Hayom that Japan's current leadership under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba lacks the strategic vision needed to address the growing nuclear challenges posed by China, North Korea, and Russia – three nations that have dramatically expanded their nuclear capabilities while maintaining hostile postures toward Japan.
"Japan is the country that has to learn more from the resoluteness and the determination of Israel," Taniguchi said in an exclusive interview, praising Israel's decisive action against Iran's nuclear program. "What Israel has done, really, has been a great service."
Ishiba's contradictory positions expose strategic weakness
Taniguchi highlighted Prime Minister Ishiba's contradictory statements regarding Iran and Israel. While Ishiba recently declared at a G7 summit that Japan "could never tolerate Iran possessing nuclear weapons" he had previously condemned Israel – not Iran – during earlier exchanges of hostilities between the two nations.
"How could one interpret the differences between the two statements?" Taniguchi asked, attributing the inconsistency to Ishiba's political weakness and lack of strategic thinking. "He himself is not a natural born strategist, unlike Shinzo Abe, his predecessor, who was very much strategically minded."
According to Taniguchi, Ishiba's domestic condemnation of Israel was driven by his need to appease the pacifist wing of his coalition government, a political calculation born from his administration's precarious position after losing the lower house majority.
"His political capital is weak," Taniguchi explained. "That led him to cater more to the pacifist wing of his own coalition party."
Nuclear taboo hampers Japan's strategic thinking
Despite being the only nation to suffer nuclear attacks in warfare – at Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Japan has struggled to develop a coherent nuclear deterrence strategy, according to Taniguchi. He argues that this reluctance to engage with nuclear realities leaves Japan vulnerable to increasingly aggressive neighbors.
"It is absolutely intolerable for Japan to see countries such as Iran possessing nuclear weapons and nuclear capabilities militarily," Taniguchi said. "If Japan is now to tolerate Iran going nuclear militarily, you couldn't ask for help when the North Korean military nuclear threat and Chinese nuclear threat have become even more imminent."
The urgency of Japan's strategic predicament became clear as Taniguchi outlined the mounting threats facing his country. "Russia, North Korea, China, are all eager to develop their nuclear capabilities. And if Japan does nothing, it would make Japan even weaker vis-à-vis North Korea, China, the Russians. So it's now high time for Tokyo to have an in-depth conversation with its allied partner of the United States as to how the nuclear deterrence arrangement should be extended and should be made even more powerful. But that argument itself has long been a taboo. And one has to break that taboo to become even more realistic."
The analyst noted that while opposition to nuclear weapons remains strong in Japan, the country must break through long-standing taboos to discuss nuclear deterrence seriously. "To say I am opposed to nuclear weapons is one thing. But to say that we need to possess nuclear deterrence is quite another," he observed.
Taniguchi clarified that Japan should not pursue its own nuclear weapons program, explaining the practical realities behind this position. "A very small minority of Japan thinks that Japan should go nuclear militarily itself... the political cost, financial cost – they are too costly. Instead, it's far wiser and more sensible for Japan to think about managing nuclear deterrence capacities together with the United States, just as countries like Germany, Belgium, Turkey did during the Cold War era."
Regional transformation on the horizon
When asked directly whether Israel's current actions will be remembered positively "as a great thing many years from now," Taniguchi responded with confidence: "I think so."
In the conversation, Taniguchi predicted that Israel's actions would ultimately be viewed positively as part of broader regional changes, "not just about the confrontations that are going on between Iran and Israel, sooner rather than later, the landscape, Middle Eastern landscape is going to be dramatically changed. And I am the one who believes that sooner rather than later, the rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia will even change the Middle Eastern landscape to the better," he said.
However, Taniguchi noted that average Japanese citizens pay little attention to Middle Eastern developments and tend to call for restraint from "both sides" when asked about the Israel-Iran conflict. This public disengagement, he suggested, makes it even more crucial for political leaders to take a broader strategic view.
"Political leaders of this nation must look broadly, must get a broader picture, and that broader picture includes the necessity for Japan to think more seriously about how to deter nuclear powers," he emphasized.
