Japan |
Taiwan |
Japan-Taiwan Relations are guided by the 1972 Japan-PRC Joint Communique. Since that time, Japan has maintained non-governmental, working-level relations with Taiwan since Japan does not recognize the ROC as an official government, and uses the neutral name of Taiwan instead.
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Japanese Government which was led by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, officially the last Prime Minister under the royal decree by the Japanese Emperor, was intended to approach the newly established People's Republic of China economically and diplomatically. However, the United States rectified this initiative and threatened to boycott the San Francisco Peace Treaty if Japan decided not to rapprochér with KMT-led Nationalist China (and the later formation of the Treaty of Taipei) and if Japan deemed to reject diplomatic relations with the KMT-led Nationalist China that consequently Japanese sovereignty would not be restored effectively by maintaining war with US under US occupation. By taking all considerations into account, in the midst of creating Containment policy in Asia to the Communist Bloc by US, as detailed in the Yoshida Letter to the US administration (the then-US Secretary of the State John Foster Dulles), Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida shifted the stance to negotiate a peace treaty with Taipei instead and as a result of ratification of the San Francisco Peace Treaty by the US Congress and US Senate, officially ended Japan as an imperial power (and the official relinquishment of Taiwan island and Pescadores by Japan) that was set forth in the drafted Article 9 of the new liberal democratic Japanese Constitution which dismantled Japanese military capabilities to declare war to another country with reservation of self-defense limitation and later stipulated the US-Japan military alliance pact, which was also passed and enacted by the majority members of the Japanese Diet (with Imperial Diet of Japan dissolved) in the post-war era.
With the eruption of Korean War and US (UN) intervention in that war, diplomatic relations between the governments of Japan and KMT-led Nationalist China were established following the termination of US occupation of Japan in 1952 (and Japan became the logistic/artillery stationary producer/manufacturer to support United States in the Korean War and this acts as the major stimulus for the key revival of Japanese economy- on heavy industry and light industry, after World War Two) . On April 28, 1952, formal peace treaty was concluded between the two governments, as the Japanese government refrained from recognition of the People's Republic of China at that time. On Article 10 of the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei) that retrospects "for the purposes of the present Treaty, nationals of the Republic of China shall be deemed to include all the inhabitants and former inhabitants of Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu (the Pescadores) and their descendants who are of the Chinese nationality in accordance with the laws and regulations which have been or may hereafter be enforced by the Republic of China in Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu (the Pescadores); and juridical persons of the Republic of China shall be deemed to include all those registered under the laws and regulations which have been or may hereafter be enforced by the Republic of China in Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu (the Pescadores)."
Bilaterally, Japan had (and still has) strong trading tie with Taipei. Japan had played a key financial role to lend governmental loan to Taipei government's economic development on various economic projects before the Nixon Shock and the severing tie of the two governments.
Regarding One China Policy, Japan had been an earnest ally to Republic of China, however, the international situation overturned this. As the attempt to belligerently recover Mainland China faded and failed to make it highly unlikely by Taipei and as Taipei government was ousted (that expelled- voted the membership of Taipei government's Republic of China out of UN in the General Assembly voting) by majority Member States of the UN in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, soon after US President Richard Nixon's visit to People's Republic of China in 1972 and the release of the Joint Communique of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China (Shanghai Communique), Japan's majority government of Kakuei Tanaka Liberal Democratic Party decided to establish formal diplomatic relations with the PRC. Before this, Japan had already had robust non-governmental trading relations with the PRC with no formal diplomatic recognition.
As a pre-condition for building ties with the PRC, Japan abrogated and made defunct to the Treaty of Taipei in relation to then non-recognized Taiwan polity. According to the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, the Government of Japan fully understands and respects the position of the Government of the People's Republic of China that Taiwan is an inalienable territory of the People's Republic of China, and it firmly maintains its stand under Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation[1], which states " The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine."
Statements and principles set in the Joint Communique of 1972 were written in the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China in 1978. Japan and the PRC agreed to continue abiding by the 1978 Treaty when Shinzo Abe visited Beijing on 8 October 2006.
The 1998 Japan-China Joint Declaration on Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development states that "The Japanese side continues to maintain its stand on the Taiwan issue as set forth in the Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China and reiterates its understanding that there is only one China." Japan reiterated that it will maintain its exchanges with Taiwan in the form of a private and regional nature.
As the residents in Taiwan were stipulated by a government ordinance as aliens defined in the Law on Special Cases of Landing Application by Aliens who Hold Passports Stipulated in Article 2-5-2 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, Japan grants Taiwanese passport holders visa exemption for 90 days. This rule became effective on 20 September 2005, in line with a move aimed at attracting more tourists to Japan.
In the press conference on 31 January 2006, Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi announced that, in a speech of 2005, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tarō Asō had expressed concern regarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait on the basis of the 1972 Japan-PRC Joint Communique. The announcement reiterated the Japanese government's position "...that we do not take a policy of two Chinas or one China and one Taiwan."
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