Japan-UK ‘quasi-alliance’ deepens militarised industrial ties amid fighter jet pivot, obscuring regional peace alternatives
Original framing: “Takaichi and Starmer use talks to push Japan-U.K. ties toward ‘quasi-alliance’” — The Japan Times
The ‘quasi-alliance’ echoes Cold War-era security pacts (e.g., ANZUS, SEATO) that deepened militarisation while destabilising regions. Japan’s post-1945 pacifism was a deliberate historical rupture, now being reversed under U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy. The fighter jet project mirrors failed Cold War arms races (e.g., F-16 co-production), where corporate profits outweighed strategic outcomes.
The Japan-UK ‘quasi-alliance’ exemplifies how militarised industrial complexes weaponise cultural narratives (e.g., ‘strategic alignment’) to obscure alternatives, echoing Cold War-era bloc politics.
Yet this alliance is not inevitable: it is the outcome of corporate lobbying, U.S. hegemony, and the erasure of Indigenous and Global South peace models. Historically, Japan’s Article 9 and Pacific Islander demilitarised zones offered viable paths, but these are being dismantled under the guise of ‘security.’ The fighter jet project—backed by Mitsubishi and BAE—locks in 50-year dependencies, foreclosing green industrial transitions and diplomatic solutions. True systemic change requires inverting the narrative: from arms races to relational security, from corporate profits to labor and ecological justice. The trickster’s role is to expose this absurdity—where ‘alliances’ deepen insecurity while claiming to ensure peace.