三傻大闹宝莱坞
As Japan pours billions into defense dreaming of arms-led prosperity, many warn history’s darkest chapters offer a sobering lesson_我的网站
一 | Editor's Note:
August 15 marked the 81st anniversary of Japan's announcement of its unconditional surrender. Eighty-one years on, Japan, the defeated aggressor in World War II (WWII), has not only failed to conduct a thorough reckoning with its wartime aggression, but has instead intensified its drive to expand military power. In its newly released 2026 Defense White Paper on August 4, Japan says that "defense business not only possesses a high degree of public value by directly contributing to the protection of citizens' lives, but also contributes to Japan's economic growth through ripple effects into the civilian sector."
This line of argument, along with Japan's defense policies in recent years, in fact reflects a form of "military Keynesianism" - the use of military spending as a means to stimulate overall economic development. However, this logic of "trying to boost the economy through military buildup" has faced widespread skepticism inside Japan. Some scholars have also warned that Japan pursued a similar policy during WWII, which led to the expansion of the military-industrial complex (MIC) and, in objective terms, fueled the scale of Japan's war of aggression, bringing profound suffering to the peoples of Asia and the world.
People take part in a protest march in Tokyo, opposing politicians making ritual offerings to or visiting the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, on August 15, 2026. Photo: cnsphoto
Pursuing a military Keynesian pathJapan's 2026 Defense White Paper, at 598 pages, has set a record as the longest in history. More alarming than its length, however, is the document's first-ever explicit definition of the development of the defense industry as an effective means of promoting "economic growth."
"The white paper 'stresses that investment in defense benefits the wider economy and people's lives,' according to a Defense Ministry presentation document," reported Reuters on August 4. "That message aligns with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's broader use of strategic state spending in an effort to drive economic growth," Reuters commented. Previously, The Asahi Shimbun warned in an opinion piece that this entanglement of defense buildup with economic policy will, over time, slide into "military Keynesianism."
"Military Keynesianism" refers to the use of military spending as a tool to stimulate overall economic development. Since the Takaichi administration took office, Japan has been expanding its domestic defense market through year-on-year increases in the defense budget, while at the same time opening up international sales channels for defense production by relaxing export controls - thereby systematically pursuing a military Keynesian path.
In fiscal 2026, Japan's defense budget for the first time exceeded 9 trillion yen ($56.5 billion). Its defense-related spending has already reached 2 percent of GDP, according to The Japan Times. This not only means Japan's defense budget has risen for 14 consecutive years, but also indicates that the government is using fiscal stimulus to artificially create a large and relatively stable "arms market." The resulting closed-loop logic is clear: the government increases defense spending to expand procurement; defense companies receive orders and scale up production; and, through industrial-chain spillovers, related industries also expand output.
As Japan's new Defense White Paper says, higher defense expenditures will not only significantly increase orders in the defense industry, but also reinforce the defense production base through measures such as introducing mechanisms to assess corporate efforts and calculate appropriate profits for companies. These measures, the paper claims, are expected to generate economic ripple effects, "as well as technological ripple effects into the civilian sector."
What is even more alarming is that Japan is systematically removing the institutional barriers to the growth of its defense industry.
One long-standing challenge in postwar Japan has been the limited size of its domestic defense market and restrictions on arms exports, which have kept defense firms' profits relatively low and prompted some major companies to withdraw from parts of the military supply business, observers pointed out.
In 2022, however, Japan elevated the defense industry to a national strategic priority in its three key security documents, National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program. In 2023, it enacted the Act on Enhancing Defense Production and Technology Bases, allowing the government to sustain and reinforce defense manufacturing through subsidies, capital investment and other measures. And in April this year, the Takaichi administration formally lifted the ban on exports of lethal weapons, fully opening the door for Japan's defense industry to enter global markets.
Together, these moves show that Japan is no longer content with relying on its Self-Defense Forces' limited procurement needs. It seeks to turn itself into a global arms supplier. This will inevitably intensify the regional arms race and seriously destabilize the security landscape in East Asia, warned some experts reached by the Global Times.
Of particular concern is that the focus of Japan's military Keynesianism has shifted from traditional weapons such as guns and artillery, to high-tech fields including artificial intelligence (AI) and drones, with an explicit emphasis on civil-military integration. Japan's new Defense White Paper places special emphasis on AI and unmanned systems, which are expected to become central issues in the year-end revision of its three key security documents.
Widespread criticism and concernJapan's bid to jolt economic growth through higher military spending amounts to little more than a wishful gamble that "guns for butter" can be turned on its head. But when the fiscal question of "where will the money come from?" collides with public anxiety over "where is people's livelihood headed?", voices from international media outlets to Japanese scholars, lawmakers and ordinary citizens alike, are warning that the narrative of arms-led prosperity is not only unlikely to work, but could also drag Japan's economy into dangerous territory, observers noted.
Japan's fiscal expenditure faces "competing demands on the public purse," "but Takaichi has yet to explain clearly how she would pay for a further expansion without adding pressure on Japan's already stretched public finances," Reuters said on August 4.
In a Japanese-language editorial piece on August 8, The Asahi Shimbun pushed the debate further toward livelihoods, saying that military expansion would place a direct strain on the daily lives of Japanese people. The piece also cited a United Nations study saying that reallocating the same resources to education and healthcare rather than the military could generate more jobs. The International Monetary Fund has also warned that rising defense spending may, in the medium term, increase economic vulnerabilities, including through wider fiscal deficits, it said.
Opposition within Japan's academic circles runs equally fierce. Yuko Tanaka, a professor emeritus at Hosei University, argues the Takaichi administration's military buildup policies are driving Japan's economy toward collapse. The continuous depreciation of the yen and climbing government bond yields have rendered its "responsible proactive fiscal policies" unsustainable in the eyes of markets. If military expansion takes precedence over people's livelihoods, Japan's economy will fall into prolonged stagnation and recession, culminating in bankruptcy, Tanaka told the Global Times.
Strong criticism also echoes across Japan's political arena. House of Representatives member Joji Yamamoto accused the Takaichi administration of doubling defense spending and lifting bans on weapons exports, while shifting healthcare costs onto patients and eroding elderly care systems. If left unchecked, Japan will gradually turn into a nation sustained by the arms trade, seriously violating people's right to subsistence guaranteed by law, Yamamoto told the Global Times.
A risky gamble
Military Keynesianism is not only unlikely to sustain long-term economic growth in Japan, but also carries hidden security risks. Koji Sonoda, deputy editor at The Asahi Shimbun's Political News Section, recently cautioned that if defense budget expansion, initially justified by a deteriorating security environment, comes instead to serve the goal of economic growth through industrial promotion, the risk grows that spending will lose any effective restraint.
History has already proven this point. The global economic depression of 1929 triggered the Showa Depression in Japan, pushing the country's economy to the brink of collapse. At the time, rather than pursuing structural reforms, Japan's political and military leadership shifted the national economy onto a wartime footing, using military spending to boost demand and mask unemployment.
Meng Mingming, assistant researcher at the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that in 1932, Korekiyo Takahashi, Japan's then Finance Minister, rolled out stimulus policies including yen depreciation and expanded fiscal outlays. Massive military spending paired with public works projects lifted domestic demand and enabled Japan to recover from the recession earlier than many nations. Takahashi became known as "Japan's Keynes."
However, the prosperity driven by fiscal deficits and military-industrial expansion was ultimately a shortsighted fix. Meng pointed out that, first, while wartime demand boosted Japan's heavy chemical and weapons manufacturing sectors to some extent, most military output was removed from the social reproduction cycle and constituted sheer waste. Second, heavy chemical industries relied heavily on resources such as oil, which Japan lacked domestically. This created a vicious cycle: military demand expanded heavy industrial capacity; that expansion increased Japan's dependence on overseas resources and markets; rising resource needs drove further military expansion to secure supply chains; and that expansion in turn required even more defense spending, further militarizing the economy. Finally, a coalition of interest formed among heavy industrial capitalists, emerging zaibatsu and the military. Military adventurism was no longer driven solely by the armed forces, but was backed by industrial and financial power.
People hold placards reading "No war" and "Stop constitutional revision, military expansion" during the Grand Constitution Rally 2026 to mark Constitution Memorial Day in Tokyo on May 3, 2026. Photo: vcgOnce the narrative that "military demand brings prosperity" gained mainstream acceptance, cutting military spending became a political taboo. Takahashi later sought to rein in military budgets and was assassinated in the February 26 Incident of 1936. His successor as finance minister, Eiichi Baba, treated military expansion as a long-term necessity. After the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Japan enacted the National Mobilization Law in 1938, ushering in a full wartime system. "History shows the defense industry is never a silver bullet for economic prosperity," Meng said. Growth driven by arms expansion only leads to economic distortion, depletion of national strength and eventual self-destruction, he said.
Currently, many Japanese citizens have recognized the dangers of the Takaichi administration's policies and taken to the streets to protest.
Kazuo Adachi, a sexagenarian, told the Global Times in Japan that behind the administration's claim that the defense industry fuels growth lies the profit motive of the military-industrial complex. From policy deregulation launched under the Abe administration to accelerated implementation under the Takaichi administration, the path of military expansion catering to arms capital is akin to poison, fraught with alarming risks.
Marin Toyosu, a member of Japan's Generation Z, said the Takaichi administration's aggressive push for war preparedness essentially hides a self-serving agenda under the slogan of a "virtuous cycle between security and the economy." It abandons vulnerable groups to benefit a small circle of arms capitalists and represents an administration bent on stoking conflict.
"This military expansion agenda harms Japanese citizens and endangers people across the world," she noted.
Tatara Satoshi, an anti-war activist, pointed out that the Takaichi administration hypes up the "China threat" to justify military buildup while pushing the flawed argument that the defense industry can boost the economy.
This does not reflect the genuine aspirations of Japanese society or ordinary citizens. "Japanese people do not want war with China. They should unite to firmly oppose efforts to advance military expansion by stoking tensions and overstating supposed economic benefits," he said.
Global Times
。 8月20日上午10点，游戏科学发布《黑神话：钟馗》15分钟实机演示。两年前的8月20日，《黑神话：悟空》上线；一年前的这天，钟馗官宣首支先导预告。这一天被玩家称作“黑神话时刻”。
《黑神话：钟馗》网站页面实机视频片尾的彩蛋里，钟馗骑虎踏雾而来。
二 | 灵感源自明代佚名画作《钟馗骑虎图》：钟馗执剑骑虎，回望蝙蝠，蝠谐音福。美术总监杨奇说，灵感还来自一场梦，他梦见钟馗骑虎。
《黑神话：钟馗》实机演示画面截图
明·佚名《钟馗骑虎图》钟馗是谁？豹头环眼，铁面虬须，样貌最“丑”的神仙，也是老百姓最信赖的守护者。亦鬼亦人亦神，独一份。杨奇说，钟馗装着“神魔、仙侠、武侠”的三重想象，气质就两个字：洒脱，“灰头土脸、不动声色的那种洒脱”。游戏科学创始人冯骥给团队立下十条开发原则，第一条是“首先打动自己”。2019年年会，他总结前五年“东搞西搞，投机取巧”，此后添上四个字：知难而进。两年前，《黑神话：悟空》火遍全球，石家庄井陉苍岩山的天王殿（又称小桥楼殿）正是游戏取景地。当时景区宣布：一年内通关的玩家，可终身免费游览。
三 | 与“黑神话”的缘分，从那时就开始了。
四 |
《黑神话：悟空》官网公开原画
现实原型：石家庄苍岩山景区天王殿（小桥楼殿）这一次，轮到钟馗。而对人来说，钟馗早已是“熟人”。蔚县剪纸里，钟馗是经典题材。这门流传两百多年的技艺，阴刻为主、阳刻为辅、点彩染色。国家级非遗代表性传承人周兆明的代表作品里就有《钟馗》；高佃亮的《钟馗降福》，曾在北京报国寺展出。
北京报国寺“高佃亮剪纸艺术精品展”展览现场唐山丰南的篓子灯，是古燕赵“乡人傩”的活化石。正月十四到十六，六名男子戴上面具，扮五个小鬼和一个判官——判官就是钟馗。队伍从药王庙出发，锣鼓开道。
五 | 正月十六夜演《五鬼闹判》，钟馗驱逐疫鬼；演毕，面具在河边烧掉，把鬼送走。2006年，篓子灯入选省首批省级非遗名录。
丰南篓子灯梆子《钟馗》，20世纪80年代问世，轰动海内外，裴艳玲首演、吴桂云接棒、郝士超传承，三代人接力，40多年演出近1700场，其戏曲艺术片获中宣部“五个一工程”奖，并被定为新中国成立以来五百部艺术精品之一。梅花奖得主吴桂云演了几十年钟馗，说这戏难演，钟馗是“人、鬼、神”一体的角色，“我们演的不是某一种行当，而是一个内心丰富的人物”。戏台上，他外罩红官衣、头戴桃翅纱帽、手执折扇，抖肩、抖胯、耍扇，摔叉、喷火，一气呵成。
梆子《钟馗》如今，钟馗又多了一个舞台。
六 | 从明代古画，到蔚县窗花，到丰南篓子灯，到梆子戏台，再到今天的实机演示，他换了一身又一身行头。实机演示的片尾彩蛋里，钟馗骑虎踏雾而来，惊鸿一瞥；此前的BOSS大战中，白衣剑客剑光起落、雷雨交加。视频发布10分钟便登顶热搜，同时在线观看一度超10万人；上线3小时B站播放量即突破300万，当日突破500万。弹幕刷满“来了来了”，评论区高频词是“震撼”“期待”“游科还是那个游科”。有玩家逐帧发现，开场主角与结尾钟馗背着同一把剑，疑为尚未成神的钟馗。
七 | 尚未成神，先走人间。
《黑神话：钟馗》实机演示画面截图这个设定，恰好对上了钟馗的“人间缘”。剪纸匠人刻《钟馗》，靠刀工；傩舞艺人舞《五鬼闹判》，靠功底；梆子演员的摔叉、喷火，磨了几十年。冯骥说，“可体验的版本，胜过满纸雄文”；杨奇说，小花招、障眼法不管用了，得先把基本功练扎实。这话，匠人、戏班早已实践了几十年：钟馗在窗花上守了百年的家，在傩舞里巡了千年的村，在戏台上唱了几十载的戏，靠的从来不是花活，是真功夫。
《黑神话：钟馗》实机演示画面截图戏台上那句唱词，或许最能道出这个角色的分量：自古钟馗有威名，目光炯炯气如虹。（综合自游戏科学官方微博、游民星空、日报、非遗网等）监制：赵永刚策划：董亚青 刘瑾妍统筹：张登峰文案：韩雅璐。
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