Fallout continues after Japanese prime minister stated use of power in opposition to Taiwan can be ‘survival threatening’ for Japan.
Printed On 5 Dec 2025
Japan and China have escalated their war of words on the United Nations following unprecedented remarks from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Tokyo’s function in a possible Taiwan battle.
Japan’s ambassador to the UN wrote to Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres on Thursday, disputing allegations from Beijing that Takaichi had violated “the essential norms governing worldwide relations” whereas chatting with the Japanese Eating regimen final month.
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“The assertions contained therein are inconsistent with the information, unsubstantiated, and are categorically unacceptable,” UN ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki wrote.
The letter marks the second time Japan has written to Guterres on the problem in as many months. Each occasions had been in response to separate letters from China to the UN about Takaichi.
The dispute started in November when Takaichi advised Japanese legislators that ought to China ever use power in opposition to Taiwan, the transfer would represent a “survival-threatening scenario” for Japan, based on Japanese media.
Taiwan and Japan would not have diplomatic relations, however they’re shut neighbours and unofficial allies. Their legislators additionally recurrently have interaction in party-to-party conferences.
Nonetheless, specialists say that Takaichi’s feedback marked a break in custom for Tokyo, which is usually extra circumspect on Taiwan points.
“This has been the unofficial place of Japan and the unstated place of Japan for a few years, however prime ministers simply don’t say it [out loud],” Jeffrey Corridor, a lecturer in Japanese research at Kanda College of Worldwide Research, advised Al Jazeera.
Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, is claimed by Beijing, which has pledged to someday annex it by peace or by power amid an ongoing navy modernisation marketing campaign. Beijing considers points surrounding Taiwan to fall inside its inner affairs.
Along with the UN letters, a Chinese language diplomat in Osaka implied in a now-deleted social media submit that Takaichi ‘s head must be reduce off over her remarks on Taiwan, based on the Reuters information company.
Chinese language state media have additionally began posting articles questioning Japan’s claims to Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands, in what has been described on-line as “geopolitical trolling”.
Takaichi, like her late mentor Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has advocated for a stronger Japanese navy – generally known as its “self-defence power” – and revising the nation’s post-war pacifist structure.
Whereas the choice to rearm remains to be controversial inside Japan, the latest dispute with China has helped to lift Takaichi’s recognition, based on Corridor.
The Japanese public has been displeased that Beijing has tried to equate modern Japan with its World Conflict II previous, he advised Al Jazeera, when the Empire of Japan brutally colonised giant swaths of East and Southeast Asia.
Fu Cong, China’s everlasting consultant to the United Nations, alluded to Japan’s historic legacy in his second letter to the UN this week about Takaichi.
He known as Takaichi’s remarks “inaccurate”, including they “brazenly problem the victorious outcomes of World Conflict II and the post-war worldwide order and represent a severe violation of the needs and rules of the Constitution of the United Nations”.
