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In her classic studyThe Chrysanthemum and the Sword, US anthropologist Ruth Benedict argued that Japan's social psychology was shaped by a system of "obligation" and "shame".

美国人类学家露丝·本尼迪克特在其经典研究《菊与刀》中指出，日本的社会心理结构是由“义务”和“羞耻”两种机制所塑造的。

From Benedict's perspective, the obligation arises from duties transmitted through hierarchy and daily social interactions, while shame derives from the need to maintain personal honor and avoid public disgrace.

在本尼迪克特看来，“义务”源自等级结构与日常互动中传递的责任，而“羞耻”则来自维持个人荣誉、避免公开耻辱的需要。

Yet the "obligations" that seem to animate Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, which stem from a political lineage that has long romanticized Japan's militaristic past, are glorified instead of being a source of shame. By publicly signaling a readiness to engage in armed intervention over the Taiwan Strait situation — under the pretext of a fabricated "external threat" — Takaichi has actually voiced a military threat against China with her provocative and dangerous remarks on Taiwan during recent Diet deliberations.

高市早苗在近期国会审议中，借编造的“外部威胁”为借口，公开表态准备对台海局势进行武力干预；她在台湾问题上的挑衅性、危险言论，实际上构成了对中国的军事威胁。

Japan's modern political trajectory since the Meiji Restoration has often swung between the two poles of the chrysanthemum and the sword proposed by Benedict: The former representing restraint and civility, the latter aggression and expansionism as embodied by Takaichi's erroneous remarks on the Taiwan question.

自明治维新以来，日本的现代政治轨迹常在本尼迪克特提出的“菊”与“刀”两极间摇摆：前者象征克制与文明，后者则象征侵略与扩张主义——高市在台湾问题上的错误言论正体现了“刀”的冲动。

Her remarks mark a regression toward the impulses that plunged Japan and the wider region into the catastrophe of war. They are not simply rhetorical overreach. They constitute a calculated political gamble that uses "national security" and "regional stability" as leverage for Japan's "normalization" with the removal of the shackles on militarization. Shackles that to some in Japan are a source of shame, when in actual fact they are an obligation imposed on it by its unbridled aggression.

她的表态意味着日本重新倒向曾令本国及更广泛地区陷入战争灾难的危险冲动。这不仅仅是言辞越界，而是一场经过算计的政治豪赌：以“国家安全”和“地区稳定”为杠杆，为日本解除军事化的束缚、推进所谓“正常化”铺路。在日本某些人眼中，这些限制似乎是耻辱，但事实上，它们是日本因昔日肆意侵略而必须承担的义务。

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