Japan Talks of Defending Taiwan Against China Aggression

TAIPEI - Although Japan has in recent months hinted it would aid in any Taiwanese defense against China, it would only help defend the island from Chinese attack if called on by the U.S. or if the conflict affected outlying islands under Japanese control, analysts say.

China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control. Tokyo would join a U.S.-led defense of Taiwan because of its historical alliance with Washington, including the 70-year-old Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, experts say, or if China struck in a way that threatened Japan’s islets, such as Yonaguni, that are near Taiwan’s east coast. An annual Japanese defense white paper in mid-July calls Taiwan important to domestic and international security for the first time, and it adds that “it is necessary that [Japan] pay close attention to the situation with a sense of crisis more than ever before.”