Tensions Highlight Lack of Japan Lawmakers with China Connections

Tokyo, Nov. 19 (Jiji Press)–The recent flare-up of tensions between Tokyo and Beijing reflecting remarks over Taiwan by Japan’s new leader has highlighted the lack of Japanese government officials and ruling party lawmakers with deep connections with China. Komeito, which claims to have served as a bridge between the two nations, has left the coalition with Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In addition, influential politicians, including former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, who long led lawmakers’ efforts on the diplomatic front, have retired, and the Japanese political world now lacks successor lawmakers to promote Japan-China ties as a result. “It’s important to have multilayered communication (with China) through efforts by both the public and private sectors, especially because there are pending issues and gaps in opinion,” Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told a press conference Tuesday. Xue Jian, China’s consul-general in the western Japan city of Osaka, suggested in a social media post that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office last month, should be beheaded, after she said in a parliamentary meeting Nov. 7 that a Taiwan contingency could create a critical situation for Japan’s existence that allows the country to exercise its collective self-defense right. China’s government has urged the country’s citizens not to visit Japan. Komeito has a long history of working to build ties between Japan and China, such as vowing to help realize their diplomatic normalization in its policy platform compiled at its inaugural convention in 1964. The Chinese side highly praised Komeito as a group promoting the normalization of diplomatic ties. “Komeito conveyed to the Chinese side things that the LDP found difficult to tell Beijing directly due to its position,” a Komeito official said. “Japan’s diplomacy went smoothly thanks to such a division of roles.” During his tenures, Shinzo Abe, the late former prime minister and LDP president, whom Takaichi viewed as her mentor, appointed Nikai, with extensive connections with China, to key posts such as LDP secretary-general and chief of the party’s General Council. Abe himself was known for his pro-Taiwan stance. When he visited China in 2015, 2017 and 2019, Nikai held meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping as Abe’s special envoy, acting as a go-between for the two leaders. The current Japanese administration, on the other hand, features members closer to Taiwan than China, such as Takaichi herself and Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara. Former LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama, who serves as head of a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers aiming to further Japan-China ties, is distancing himself from the Takaichi administration. Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), which replaced Komeito as the LDP’s coalition partner, leans toward conservatism and does not have deep relations with the neighboring country. Japan and China remained apart over Takaichi’s remarks in question at a meeting of their senior diplomats held in Beijing on Tuesday. “I think the situation would have been different had (Nikai) still been in politics,” a middle-ranking LDP lawmaker said. “He could have broken the stalemate by visiting China.” A young Komeito lawmaker said, “There’s no one in the LDP-Nippon Ishin coalition who can serve as a brake.” “Maintaining communication channels is important at a time when (bilateral) relations are strained,” Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, a Japanese opposition party, said at a press conference Tuesday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]