U.S. Report Calls Takaichi's Taiwan Remarks "Significant Shift"

Washington, March 18 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's parliamentary remarks last year on a potential Taiwan contingency marked a "significant shift," a U.S. government report said Wednesday.

The 2026 annual threat assessment of the U.S. intelligence community, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, brought up Takaichi's statements made last November that China's possible use of force against Taiwan could constitute a so-called survival-threatening situation for Japan, in which the country can exercise its collective self-defense right.

"Her comments represent a significant shift for a sitting Japanese prime minister," the report said.

"In response, China is employing multidomain coercive pressure that probably will intensify through 2026, aimed both at punishing Japan and deterring other countries from making similar statements about their potential involvement in a Taiwan crisis," it said, warning that Beijing may increase military activities around the Senkaku Islands in the southern Japan prefecture of Okinawa, which are claimed by China.

"China probably is concerned that Prime Minister Takaichi's comments will bolster Taiwan's independence movement," it analyzed.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]