ABSTRACT
The evolving relationship between Japan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) reflected the Cold War’s evolution closely. In its first phase, the bilateral relationship was totally severed by the Cold War confrontation between the Western bloc, to which Japan belonged, and the Eastern bloc, to which the PRC belonged. Being the core of the US-PRC confrontation, the Taiwan problem was the fundamental factor constraining the growth of the Japan-PRC relationship, in terms of progress toward normalization. The USPRC rapprochement in 1971-72 removed a fundamental obstacle to the normalization, which was realized in September 1972. The Taiwan problem constituted the most serious issue in the negotiations for normalization. After normalization, however, it largely disappeared from the scene as the factor pulling the two countries apart.
