Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a party leader debate at the House of Councilors on Wednesday, November 26, 2025 in Tokyo. Regarding his recent comments, which have been heavily criticized by China, Takaichi said that he did not intend to go into details of the Taiwan crisis.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Japan on Thursday rejected a U.S. intelligence agency’s assessment that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan represent a “significant change” for the incumbent Japanese prime minister.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference that Tokyo’s approach is “completely consistent.”
“A significant policy shift is not what is happening now,” Kihara said, according to a translation provided by the prime minister’s office.
The reaction came as Takaichi arrived in the United States for a summit meeting with US President Donald Trump, which is expected to be dominated by the Iran conflict.
In November, Takaichi told Congress that he could prompt Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to intervene if China tried to take control of Taiwan by force, sparking an angry reaction from the Chinese government.
China responded by suspending seafood imports and issuing a travel advisory for its citizens not to travel to Japan, resulting in a sharp drop in Chinese tourists visiting the country.
The intelligence report released on March 18 said it was significant that Takaichi characterized the possibility of China’s invasion of Taiwan as an “existential crisis” for Japan.
The term could pave the way for Japan to intervene under a 2015 constitutional reinterpretation that allows its military to exercise the right of “collective self-defense” to protect allies under certain scenarios.
The US report also said that “China is exerting multi-domain coercive pressure that will likely intensify through 2026, both to punish Japan and to deter other countries from making similar statements about its potential involvement in the Taiwan crisis.”
However, intelligence agencies also assess that Chinese leaders currently have no plans to carry out an invasion of Taiwan in 2027.
The Chinese government considers democratically-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory, and has not ruled out the possibility of using force against the island. Taiwan rejects these claims, insisting that only Taiwan can decide its future.
power politics
Earlier Wednesday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said peaceful unification with Taiwan would benefit Taiwan, including improving the security of Taiwan’s energy resources “with the support of a strong motherland.”
This comes after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-de sought to allay concerns about energy reserves, saying Taiwan’s supplies were “100% ready” for the next two months. He added that Taiwan intends to increase gas imports from the United States to meet domestic energy needs.
According to the Taiwan Energy Bureau, 95.8% of energy will be imported in 2024. Saudi Arabia and the US each accounted for about 30% of crude oil imports.
Taiwan sources 38% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Australia, with about a quarter coming from Qatar.
Imported coal accounted for 29.1% of Taiwan’s energy supply, with nearly half coming from Australia and just 0.03% from China. This year, Taiwan imported neither crude oil nor LNG from China.
