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Japan Sends Senior Envoy to Beijing to Ease Tensions Over Taiwan Remarks

The trip aims to reaffirm that the prime minister’s comments did not change Japan’s security policy.

Overview

  • MOFA Asia–Oceania Director Kanai Masaaki arrived in Beijing on November 17 for talks set for November 18 with Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong.
  • Tokyo plans to explain that Prime Minister Takaichi’s Diet remarks on a Taiwan contingency do not alter Japan’s established stance under its security laws.
  • Kanai intends to press for the withdrawal of Chinese advisories urging caution on travel to Japan and on studying in Japan, citing the importance of people-to-people exchanges.
  • Japan will also seek appropriate handling of an Osaka-based Chinese consul’s inflammatory social media post that drew calls in Japan for expulsion.
  • Beijing previously summoned Ambassador Kanasugi to demand a retraction, and a major TokyoBeijing forum was postponed at China’s request following the remarks.