The Japanese government has warned companies with operations in Taiwan that they should not expect government support in the event of an invasion, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday.
The report quoted several anonymous sources from both Japan and the US which indicated that Japanese officials have told companies they would be “on their own” if a conflict with China were to break out, leading to less foreign direct investment (FDI) into Taiwan by Japanese firms.
Japanese officials told the FT that under Japan’s constitution, it could only deploy the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) abroad with the approval of a foreign government, which in a Taiwan scenario would be difficult given the two countries lack formal ties.
Photo: CNA
There “is no government in Taiwan from our viewpoint,” the report quotes an official as saying, meaning that JSDF involvement in any evacuation of private citizens would need approval from China.
Sources indicate such approval would be unlikely to materialize, it said.
The report cites Japanese diplomats and business executives who said the warnings have been going on for around three years, dating back to around the time of when then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.
That trip and subsequent tensions led to many firms reconsidering investments in Taiwan and contingency planning in the event of a crisis, it said.
The warnings have had a “chilling effect” on Japanese investment in Taiwan, the report quotes an anonymous US official as saying, which has decreased compared to investment from the US and EU.
One Japanese executive is quoted as saying that “risk assessment pretty much leads us to little interest in Taiwan,” due to the lack of security guarantees and government support.
Furthermore, several Japanese companies with large operations in Taiwan have conducted in-house exercises simulating what to do in the event of a conflict, including evacuations, it said.
Although government officials have been present in some of these exercises as observers, “the implicit understanding was that such efforts would be a private sector operation,” it said.
The JSDF told the newspaper that answering questions about a hypothetical situation would be difficult but that it would act in accordance with domestic and international laws.
The piece also quotes the Japanese foreign ministry as specifying that evacuating its citizens is one of its most important responsibilities and that it would “explore all possibilities” in the event of such an emergency.
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