Seventy percent of Japanese view Taiwan as an independent country and support establishing formal diplomatic relations between the nations, a poll published yesterday by a Taipei-based think tank showed.
The Indo-Pacific Strategic Think Tank (IPST) worked with the Japanese Sankei Shimbun’s polling company to conduct a survey on Japanese public opinion of Taiwan and cross-strait relations.
The survey showed that 71.1 percent of Japanese respondents said they support establishing diplomatic ties with Taiwan, 71.2 percent view Taiwan as an independent nation and 55 percent feel closest to Taiwan among nine Asian countries.
Photo: CNA
When asked which person most represents Taiwan, 53.8 percent chose late singer Teresa Teng (鄧麗君), followed by retired baseball star Kuo Tai-yuan (郭泰源), who pitched for Japan’s Seibu Lions from 1985 to 1997, at 18.6 percent and late president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) at 16.7 percent.
Four percent of respondents said President William Lai (賴清德), the poll showed.
Regarding cross-strait relations, only 8.2 percent of participants said they viewed Taiwan as part of China and 20.6 said they were unsure about the issue.
Fifty percent said they believe that a war would not occur in the next decade, 23.6 percent think conflict is likely and 26.4 percent remain neutral, the poll showed.
On late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s statement that “a Taiwan contingency is a contingency for Japan,” 38.3 percent said they supported it, 30 percent opposed it and 31.8 percent did not reply either way, it showed.
If a conflict were to break out, 52.1 percent said they expected that the US would support, but not directly intervene, 39.1 percent expect a US intervention and 8.9 percent believe the US would not assist Taiwan.
As for Japan’s role in a hypothetical conflict, 46.6 percent of respondents said they believed Japan should provide legally permissible support, 41.4 percent support economic sanctions and 12 percent believe Japan should not intervene at all, the poll showed.
The survey found that 40.6 percent of respondents said they believe Japan should bolster economic engagement with Taiwan, while 26.7 percent said they prefer prioritizing security cooperation, 16.1 percent support emphasizing cultural exchanges and 10.2 percent prefer focusing on political relations.
Regarding what they like and dislike most about Taiwan, the majority said they liked Taiwan’s proximity to Japan and the friendliness of Taiwanese, such as how it assists Japan during natural disasters, while 53.8 percent cited Taiwan’s chaotic traffic as a major drawback, the poll showed.
The survey was conducted on Sept. 21, with more than 3,000 adult respondents from eight major cities, IPST said, adding that the poll consisted of 14 single-choice questions, asked over the telephone.
The IPST is a new research organization founded by Taipei-based political commentator Akio Yaita that takes inspiration from Abe’s Indo-Pacific Strategy to highlight Taiwan’s democratic freedoms and its strategic importance to regional peace and stability.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby