ABSTRACT

Aside from the United States, Japan is Taiwan’s most important strategic partner in East Asia. Geographical proximity, strong historical and cultural ties, and the common challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China’s increasingly assertive behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and the Sea of Japan mean that Taipei and Tokyo have to find ways to work ever more closely together, regardless of Japan’s formal acceptance of the One China policy based on the Chinese-Japanese communiqué of 1972, which stated that ‘Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China’, and that ‘the Government of Japan fully understands and respects this stand’ (China-Japan Joint Communique 1972). Indeed, this chapter argues that despite the remaining obstacles to much closer official Japan-Taiwan political ties due to Tokyo’s concerns about Chinese reactions, both sides have intensified their interactions below the political radar screen. For strategic and sociocultural reasons, Japan has every incentive to ensure that Taiwan continues to find the necessary political and economic space it needs in order to survive.