The Japanese did this to themselves by speaking out against the only refiner of several rare earth metals.
Their nation depends on peace with China and they are now realizing they voted for the wrong politician, because this lady trying to remilitarize Japan reminded the Chinese of all the war crimes done to Chinese people under Japanese occupation. Completely expected development based on simple facts.
My guess is Japan will have to make some concessions with the Chinese to reach a deal or they risk losing a sector of their economy.
Building defense force isn’t just “I’m gonna spend all of this money on guns.” Defense is figuring out what the critical industries and supply chains for the good functioning of your economy and your defense ambitions are. Then ensuring those are under your control, ideally domestically. Only then you can build your actual defense force without external actors halting it at will. And here Takaichi falls flat as so many others who think in terms of spending numbers.
