Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has long been known as a China hawk who strongly supports Taiwan. She visited the island multiple times as a lawmaker, most recently in April. As such, her ascension to the premiership last month was widely viewed as placing Japan on a collision course with China.
Still, not many analysts expected a row to erupt over the issue within mere weeks of her taking office.
The dispute started when Takaichi said during parliamentary proceedings last week that a Chinese attack on Taiwan—which lies just 70 miles from Japan’s westernmost municipality—would be “a situation threatening Japan’s survival” that could trigger deployment of the country’s Self-Defense Forces.
