FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Nov 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of traffic, National Diet building

Tokyo, Japan - Sept 19, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Rally participant (name not given):
"Takaichi has almost no reflection on the war Japan launched in the past. She has even said she will not reflect on it."
3. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Rally participant (name not given):
"When I was a student, almost no one taught us about this history of Japanese aggression. So what Japan actually did -- I only truly found out recently. That's why I believe we should know the real historical facts."
4. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Rally participant (name not given):
"For the crimes committed in the past, Japan should take responsibility, offer apologies and make compensation. On that basis, we must never allow the same mistakes to be repeated."
5. Various of anti-war signs
6. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Rally participant (name not given):
"The Japanese government always says we should stop looking back at the past, but I don't see it that way. When you have committed irreparable mistakes, you should spend your entire life constantly thinking about how to take responsibility and reflecting on how to keep history from happening again."

FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Sign showing Japanese prime minister's office
8. Japanese prime minister's office building
9. Sign of "Prime Minister's residence"
10. National flag of Japan

Many Japanese citizens gathered near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Friday evening for an anti-war rally, calling on society to face up to Japan's history as an aggressor and opposing the Takaichi administration's push for military expansion and constitutional revision.

Participants at the rally said Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has shown little remorse over the war Japan waged in the past.

"Takaichi has almost no reflection on the war Japan launched in the past. She has even said she will not reflect on it," said a rally participant.

Another participant said the lack of proper education about Japan's wartime aggression has left many people unaware of what the country actually did.

"When I was a student, almost no one taught us about this history of Japanese aggression. So what Japan actually did -- I only truly found out recently. That's why I believe we should know the real historical facts," she said.

Others said Japan must own up to its past crimes and make amends before it can move forward.

"For the crimes committed in the past, Japan should take responsibility, offer apologies and make compensation. On that basis, we must never allow the same mistakes to be repeated," another rally participant said.

Rally participants also voiced firm opposition to the Takaichi administration's ongoing drive to expand the military and revise the Constitution, stressing that Japan must reflect on its wartime crimes to avoid repeating history.

"The Japanese government always says we should stop looking back at the past, but I don't see it that way. When you have committed irreparable mistakes, you should spend your entire life constantly thinking about how to take responsibility and reflecting on how to keep history from happening again," said a rally participant.