Election won't affect Taiwan, Japan ties

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is expected to sweep to a landslide victory, but the change of government in Tokyo won't affect relations between Japan and Taiwan, Japan watchers here said yesterday.

Ichiro Ozawa, who was compelled to quit as DPJ leader in favor of Yukio Hatoyama, is considered a friend of Taiwan. Hatoyama met Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of the Kuomintang, in his capacity as DPJ secretary-general in December last year.

“They are friends,” one Japan watcher said.

Hatoyama, a grandson of Ichiro Hatoyama, who founded the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955, had a party platform published, promising more efforts to promote economic and cultural exchanges between Japan and Taiwan.

The LDP of Prime Minister Taro Aso, a grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, maintained its traditional cordial relations with Taiwan after Tokyo switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1972.

Ichiro Hatoyama was the leader of the Liberal Party before the political purge imposed by General Douglas MacArthur after Japan was occupied by the Allied forces. Yoshida took over as interim leader of the Liberal Party, but when the purge was lifted, refused to relinquish the reins back to Hatoyama.

The elder Hatoyama was forced to form another party, the Democratic Party, which later merged with the Liberals to create the LDP. Yoshida retired.

Tomorrow's general elections are the battle royale the two grandsons have inherited.

“Equally friendly relations will be maintained by (whichever is) the new ruling party,” said the Japan watcher. The DPJ platform declared Japan's stance on the Taiwan Strait, iterated in the Two-plus-Two conference between Japan and the United States, in February 2005.

Two ministers from Japan and the United States regularly meet. They are ministers of defense and foreign affairs on the part of Japan and U.S. secretaries of state and defense.

The two countries have declared a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question is their common strategic objective.

The DPJ does not support Taiwan independence and opposes the use of force by the People's Republic against Taiwan. This underlies its policy, consistent with the LDP, to prevent tensions from rising across the Taiwan Strait.

Moreover, the DPJ also has a pro-Taiwan caucus, much as the LDP.

Known as the Japan-Taiwan Parliamentarians Dialogue Committee, the group of legislators has been in close contact with the ruling Kuomintang. The LDP formed its dialogue following Japan's normalization of relations with China to promote friendly ties between Tokyo and Taipei.

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