Japan must prevent a Taiwan contingency from happening, a group of pro-Taiwan Japanese lawmakers from multiple political parties said in a joint resolution on Wednesday.
Tokyo must do all in its power to avert a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese lawmakers said in the annual agenda of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council.
A Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency, the lawmakers said, echoing a phrase coined by former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Photo: Lin Tsuei-yi, Taipei Times
Japanese Representative Keiji Furuya, who heads the council, said Japanese lawmakers are already working on organizing an in-person security summit between Taiwan, Japan and the US.
The meeting can take place in person, as the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer an issue, unlike the past two summits, he said.
The council would send a delegation to attend Double Ten National Day events this year, as is customary, Furuya said.
This year’s trilateral summit is tentatively scheduled to take place in Taiwan sometime during the summer, ahead of Japan’s House of Representatives elections, Sankei Shimbun reported.
Japan should continue supporting Taiwan’s bid to join international organizations, including Interpol, the World Health Assembly, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, they said.
The lawmakers also voted to establish a Taiwan-Japan economic exchange project team aimed at boosting bilateral trade and promoting pop culture exchanges including anime and manga, they said.
President William Lai (賴清德) in a video recording thanked the Japanese lawmakers for their support by allowing Taiwan to be listed as place of origin in Japan’s household registration system.
Lai highlighted shared challenges, including a shifting geopolitical landscape, climate change and economic uncertainty, adding that Taiwan and Japan could weather the storm only by cooperating “hand-in-hand and heart-to-heart.”
“We hope, in the face of expanding authoritarianism, to work closely with Japan to jointly build non-red supply chains,” he said.
“We hope to stand firmly together to exert our strength as we collectively safeguard our democratic values and promote regional peace, stability and prosperity,” he added.
The council’s influence has ebbed and waned from a height of more than 300 members to a nadir of 188.
The council’s current membership is 288, making it one of the largest all-party groups in the Diet.
Japan’s top representative to Taiwan yesterday said that both sides need to work closely to respond to economic and security challenges brought by US President Donald Trump’s new administration.
At an event in Taipei to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Taiwan Society of Japan Studies, Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Taipei Office Chief Representative Kazuyuki Katayama said deepening Japan-Taiwan economic and technological cooperation has attracted increasing global attention.
Japanese companies and their Taiwanese counterparts have “inseparable connections” spanning mutual investments, research and development, and talent exchanges, Katayama said.
Japan and Taiwan face mutual security and economic challenges due to an increasingly complex global situation and East Asia policies “that deserve careful evaluation” from the Trump White House.
This means Japan and Taiwan need more “sophisticated responsive measures,” he said.
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