Japan has suddenly become very popular, and no longer looks anything like the "politically insignificant state" that it likes to claim being.
Japan has taken the lead in the protests against North Korea's missile tests, being more vociferous than even the US -- which has yet to offer a substantive reaction -- by proposing the concept of a preemptive strike aimed at destroying North Korea's missile bases. In the area of cross-strait relations, it may not want to make any concrete promises regarding the possibility that Taiwan be brought in under the umbrella of the US-Japan Security Alliance. But it has placed even greater importance on Taiwan's stalled arms purchase bill than the US, by publicly announcing that Japan does not welcome visits by anyone opposing the bill.
These positions are very different from Japan's past, low-profile diplomacy.
The main reason that Japan is so active on the issue of regional security is that it wants to use the North Korea issue as a stepping stone to normalizing its status in the international community. It is active in the area of cross-strait relations because it wants to use Taiwan as leverage in its relations with China.
The fact that Japan is showing such interest in the Taiwan issue has meant that representatives of both Taiwan's government and opposition are falling over each other to visit Tokyo. Late last month, for example, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Council of Labor Affairs Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) attended the US-Japan Security Alliance forum, and also met with several Liberal Democratic Party heavyweights. In doing so, they demonstrated the DPP's good relations with Japan, and also had a chance to further consolidate those relations before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) visit.
Then early this month, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
He was followed by Ma, who visited Foreign Minister Taro Aso and other important politicians. Ma is trying to improve the KMT's relations with political circles in Japan, which have been moribund in the six years since the transfer of political power in 2000.
He also wants to express his understanding of Japan and make clear that he is not anti-Japanese. Finally, Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Yeh Chu-lan (
All this activity has led to two major changes in Taiwan's relations with Japan.
First, if one wants to reach Beijing from Taipei, one has to go through Tokyo. During its six years in power, the DPP has developed Taiwan-Japan relations to a post-war high point. For an isolated Japan, Taiwan is the kind of close friend that is hard to come by, and economic and diplomatic concerns have led the Japanese government to extend a series of benefits to Taiwan -- including visa exemption and the recognition of international driver licenses issued in Taiwan. The DPP has responded to this by letting pro-independence personnel deal with Japan-related issues.
Through Tokyo's deep concerns over China's "Anti-Secession" Law and the DPP's advocacy of a referendum on the question of whether or not Taiwan should adopt a new constitution, Japan has become one of the countries that best understands Taiwan. It is easy to see that in the future the road to Beijing must go through Tokyo.
Second, Washington has to go through Tokyo to reach Taipei. After becoming prime minister in 2001, Junichiro Koizumi further deepened the close relationship between the US and Japan regulated by the US-Japan Security Alliance. As a result, Koizumi's government has developed a closer relationship with the US than any other post-war Japanese government.
He has also closely followed the US' East Asian policies and its war on terror, while taking advantage of the changes to the US-Japan Security Alliance to achieve his goal of normalizing Japan's international status.
As a result, the US used the Japanese government to put pressure on Taiwan when the pan-blue camp continued to procrastinate and block the passage of the arms procurement bill in the legislature. Wang and Ma's visits to Japan, and the Japanese declaration that anyone opposing the passage of Taiwan's arms procurement bill is unwelcome, show that the US in future may have to go through Tokyo to reach Taipei.
But is Japan really the country that best understands Taiwan? Cross-strait relations and the arms procurement bill are the main reasons why Japan has taken such an active interest in Taiwan, since the cross-strait relationship has a bearing on Japan's relationship with China while the passage of the arms procurement bill affects the US-Japan alliance.
The question should really be answered with a counter-question: Has Japan taken a clear position on the issue of Taiwan being included in the US-Japan alliance, or is Taiwan only a pawn in the triangular relationship between Japan, China and the US?
Tsai Zheng-jia is an associate research fellow in the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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