Acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki criticises change in Japanese security policy and urges pacifism

Japan cannot use military strength to counter China, Hayao Miyazaki, famed director of the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away, said on Monday, as he joined a chorus of protest against a change in Japan’s security policy.

Miyazaki, 74, has long spoken out against war and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s desire for measures allowing broader use of Japan’s military, particularly in his final film, The Wind Rises, which earned him accusations of being a traitor.

Abe’s rush to push through changes to Japan’s pacifist constitution, arguing that China’s growing strength needs to be countered, was “exactly the opposite” of what he should do, Miyazaki told a rare news conference.

“It is impossible to stop China’s power through military strength,” the famously reclusive master of animated fantasy, whose films have made him a revered household name in Japan, said at his suburban Tokyo studio.

“They need to think of a different way. That’s why our pacifist constitution was created.”

The Wind Rises, which marked Miyazaki’s 2013 retirement from full-length animated films, told the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japan’s feared “Zero” fighter.