Sanae is one dumb politician.
This is what I remember.
In my entire life, in the triangle between China, Japan, South Korea, when relations warm up, then Japan and South Korea both are friendlier to China. When relations cool down, both Japan and South Korea are more antagonistic towards China.
I always thought the reason was fairly simple, out of this triangle, neither Japan or South Korea want to be left out.
In other words, once relations warm up between China and Japan then South Korea improves their China relations in order to not get left out, and the same can be said if South Korea takes a friendlier initiative towards China, we can expect Japan to follow in the same vein.
This is the first time in my life I have witness a divergence in this triangle.
No one has said anything about this in the press, and there are older folks in the media, who do not want to talk about this.
Japan seems royally screwed with their leadership.