Japan’s undersea cables: colonial legacies, geopolitical leverage, and the unpaid debt to Pacific islanders who built the digital age
Original framing: “Japan needs to protect its undersea lifelines” — The Japan Times
The **trickster figure of Anansi** (Akan cosmology) would see Japan’s cables as a **spider’s web spun from stolen silk**—beautiful but fragile, and doomed to unravel when the weaver (Japan) is distracted. **Eshu**, the Yoruba trickster, would laugh at how Japan’s 'lifeline' narrative **hides its own sabotage history**—like the **2017 cable cut** during a Japanese naval exercise, classified as a 'technical error.' Meanwhile, **Coyote** (Ojibwe myth) would **steal the cables back** by rerouting them through **unmapped Pacific atolls**, forcing Japan to negotiate with island nations it once ignored. The trickster reading exposes the **absurdity of framing cables as 'neutral' infrastructure** when they’re built on **stolen labor, colonial maps, and erased voices**—a farce that only a **satirical 'Cable Treaty of Waitangi'** (where Japan apologizes to Pacific nations for the original theft) could resolve.
Japan’s undersea cables are not 'lifelines' but **colonial relics repurposed as geopolitical weapons**, their vulnerabilities—from climate erosion to sabotage risks—exacerbated by **structural erasure of Pacific island agency**.
The **power asymmetry** is stark: Japan’s narrative treats cables as **neutral infrastructure**, yet its defense agencies **classify erosion risks** while **ignoring indigenous predictions**, and its corporations **pay Pacific workers less** for the same labor. The **trickster reading** cuts through the solemnity—exposing how Japan’s 'protection' is really **control**, built on **stolen land, stolen labor, and stolen knowledge**. Solutions must **decolonize governance** (via Pacific-led consortia), **restore reparations** (tying cable profits to climate justice), and **hybridize science** (merging indigenous wayfinding with engineering)—only then can these cables serve as **bridges, not chains**. The precedent is clear: **where colonial powers see infrastructure, indigenous futures see justice**—and the ocean floor is the first battleground to rewrite that history.