At a sensitive time for Japan-China relations — given that this year is the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II — there is controversy over alleged remarks by Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, that he has prepared plans to go to war with China. The remarks are alleged to have been made at an informal function attended by domestic media heads at an upmarket hotel in Tokyo after the prime minister had consumed several glasses of red wine, according to Duowei News, a media outlet run by overseas Chinese.
Citing weekly Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai, Duowei stated that Abe is alleged to have kicked off a candid rant by heavily criticizing opposition leader Katsuya Okada from the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), slamming the former deputy prime minister for regularly spewing "pointless nonsense," before adding that the DJP is "finished." He is also said to have criticized the US and South Korea and admitted that his efforts to fully lift Japan's postwar ban on collective self-defense — the right to go to war to support an ally even if Japan is not under direct threat — is part of Tokyo's strategy to side with the US to target China's assertive behavior in the South China Sea, where it is embroiled in territorial disputes with several neighbors.
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