Taiwan foreign minister made visit to Japan: ruling LDP lawmaker

This file photo taken in Taipei in May 2024 shows Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung. (Kyodo)

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung recently made a rare visit to Japan, a lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Friday, in a move likely to provoke China, which sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory.

Keiji Furuya, who heads a cross-party group promoting relations with Taiwan, posted a photo of himself and Lin, apparently taken in Japan, on social media, without providing a detailed itinerary.

Japan switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1972, and the latter regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary.

Sanae Takaichi, a former economic security minister, and former Defense Minister Minoru Kihara were also in the photo, which included a caption saying that the LDP lawmakers exchanged views with Lin before his visit to the World Exposition in Osaka.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Lin’s trip schedule, saying it was a “private” visit.

Lin also visited the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Tokyo, the democratic island’s de facto embassy in Japan, becoming the first sitting foreign minister to do so, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.

Even though they no longer have diplomatic ties, Japan and Taiwan have maintained economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, with Japanese conservative lawmakers tending to support Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday expressed his government’s commitment to securing the safety of Japanese nationals conducting business in China, amid recent detentions of its citizens there on alleged espionage charges.

“We will do our utmost as a government so that people can be engaged in business in China with peace of mind,” Ishiba said during a speech to corporate executives.