Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has doubled down on her Taiwan comments, saying that the Japan-U.S. security alliance would \u201ccollapse\u201d if Tokyo did nothing in the event American forces were attacked during an emergency involving the evacuation of the two allies\u2019 citizens from the democratic island.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a debate Monday night featuring political party leaders ahead of the Feb. 8 Lower House election, Takaichi said her November statement in parliament that Tokyo could militarily intervene in a Taiwan crisis under certain conditions was \u201cnot about Japan going out and taking military action when China and the U.S. clash.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen something serious happens there, we have to go and rescue the Japanese and Americans in Taiwan. That means we might take joint action,\u201d she said, emphasizing the distance between Taiwan and Japanese territory \u2014 about 110 kilometers \u2014 \u201cis roughly the same\u201d as from Tokyo to the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, if the U.S. military, acting jointly with us, comes under attack, and Japan does nothing and retreats, the Japan-U.S. alliance would collapse,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, within the bounds of the law, within the current legal framework, we must comprehensively assess the unfolding situation and respond accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Takaichi\u2019s remarks last year<\/a> hinting that a naval blockade in the vicinity of Taiwan could constitute a \u201csurvival-threatening situation\u201d \u2014 potentially triggering the mobilization of the Self-Defense Forces \u2014 triggered a diplomatic uproar with Beijing, sending relations with China plummeting to fresh lows.<\/p>\n China \u2014 which views Taiwan as \u201cthe core of its core interests\u201d and has vowed to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary \u2014 has demanded that Takaichi retract and reflect on her remarks, a move that would amount to political suicide for the popular prime minister.<\/p>\n Absent such a move, Beijing has responded with a fury that shows few signs of abating anytime soon<\/a> after China warned its citizens on Monday against traveling to Japan during the Lunar New Year<\/a>, its longest public holiday. This followed its de facto reimposition of a recently lifted ban on seafood imports and China\u2019s decision to slap new export restrictions on Japan that may impact rare earths and its anti-dumping probe into a key chip-making material.<\/p>\n For her part, Takaichi, who says that her administration\u2019s stance is consistent with that of past governments, has attempted to soften the impact of her Taiwan remarks, saying that the door to communication remains open.<\/p>\n In a separate debate earlier Monday, the prime minister reiterated her willingness to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n \u201cI would consider the possibility of direct dialogue in order to ensure China correctly understands Japan\u2019s position,\u201d Takaichi said.<\/p>\n Takaichi, who was known for her hard-line…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has doubled down on her Taiwan comments, saying that the Japan-U.S. security alliance would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[12,462,360,177,179,26242,180,178,358,488,3843,84,673,405,2537],"class_list":["post-41176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-china","tag-china-japan-relations","tag-defense","tag-japans-politics","tag-japanese-politics","tag-pla","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-japan","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwan-japan-relations","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-military","tag-u-s-japan-relations","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}