Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi certainly ruffled some feathers when she said on Nov. 7 that a Chinese naval blockade of Taiwan would directly threaten Japan¡¯s survival, allowing the nation to exercise its right to engage in collective self-defense.
The media reported that the new prime minister failed to maintain ¡°strategic ambiguity¡± over Taiwan and that even Foreign and Defense Ministry officials expressed concern that further defining a Taiwan contingency could ¡°risk revealing Japan's hand.¡± Beijing predictably reacted with fierce opposition.
That said, however, I do not necessarily agree with these critical views. The gist of Takaichi's testimony regarding a Taiwan contingency is as follows:
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