Japanese coalition partner visits Taiwan amid tensions between Beijing and Tokyo

Japan’s Innovation Party has sent a 13-member delegation to Taiwan for a three-day visit, bringing a coalition partner of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi into direct contact with Taipei as relations between Beijing and Tokyo remain sharply strained.

The delegation is led by former party leader Nobuyuki Baba. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the group plans to meet President Lai Ching-te, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, legislators and officials from the National Security Council. Discussions will cover Taiwan-Japan relations and the situation in the Indo-Pacific.

The trip marks the first visit by members of the Innovation Party since it reached a coalition agreement with Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party in October 2025. Takaichi then became Japan’s first woman to head the government. The party has traditionally taken a position favourable to Taiwan.

The visit follows a deterioration in China-Japan relations after Takaichi said late last year that a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan could threaten Japan’s survival and justify intervention by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Beijing responded with measures including restrictions on exports of dual-use goods and critical minerals to Japan, as well as a recommendation that Chinese citizens avoid travelling to the Japanese archipelago.

At the end of August, young lawmakers from Japan’s governing and opposition parties travelled to Beijing. The two sides discussed ways to overcome what a senior Chinese official described as “serious difficulties” in bilateral relations. Japan severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1972 to recognise the People’s Republic of China, but has maintained nongovernmental exchanges with the island. China regards Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory and has repeatedly warned that it will not renounce the use of force to take control of the self-governed island.

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serious difficulties