The U.S. and Japan talks and the situation in Taiwan, Kan “Taiwan situation is important to Japan” but does not answer whether the “right to collective self-defense” will be involved

Kan stressed that the situation regarding Taiwan is “very important to Japan.

The Japan-U.S. dollar summit meeting was held in Washington, D.C., on the 16th of this month, U.S. time. Kyodo News reported that Kan was the first foreign head of state to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden since he took office, and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsuharu Kato said that the meeting between the two heads of state was evidence of the great importance the United States attaches to Japan. Japan hopes to strengthen trust in building a personal relationship between the heads of state that will serve as a good opportunity for the two countries to grow.

During the Japan-U.S. talks, Kan and Biden discussed and confirmed the realization of “free and open Indo-Pacific” cooperation. The two are expected to talk about China’s Xinjiang and Hong Kong issues and exchange views on the situation in the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China), the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

Speaking on a TV program Sunday, Kan said the talks are expected to touch on the Taiwan issue. Suga stressed that the situation regarding Taiwan is “very important to Japan”.

As for the Biden administration, the situation in the Taiwan Strait is heating up because the Chinese Communist Party has been sending military planes around Taiwan for several days. The reporter asked Kan whether the situation in Taiwan would be a “state of existential crisis” as stipulated in Japan’s Security Protection Law (the Security Act, or “Peace and Security Law”), and Kan said only that “at the moment, I cannot answer a hypothetical question. The answer to the hypothetical question is not possible.

It is worth noting that Japan may exercise its right to collective self-defense in the event of a state of affairs that is deemed to threaten Japan’s “existence” (existence and establishment), and that the issue of “Japan’s existence” is one of the prerequisites for the use of Japan’s right to collective self-defense. If the “existence” situation is established, the JSDF can protect Japanese in foreign countries, use force to protect the armaments of U.S. troops and other forces, and expand the supply of materials to U.S. troops on weekdays.