Premier Cho Jung-tai of Taiwan visited Japan to watch a 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) game. It is the first time since diplomatic ties were cut in 1972 that a sitting premier has visited Japan, raising the possibility of a backlash from China.
According to Taiwan's Central News Agency and others on the 8th, Premier Cho Jung-tai arrived in Japan the previous day and watched the Group C pool game between Taiwan and the Czech Republic at the Tokyo Dome. He watched the game with Representative Lee Yi-yang, Taiwan's de facto ambassador to Japan and head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, and Sports Minister Lee Yang, left the stadium in the bottom of the sixth inning, and is said to have returned home on a chartered flight later that night after the game.
It is effectively the first visit to Japan by a Taiwanese premier since Japan and Taiwan severed diplomatic ties in 1972. In 2004, then-Premier Yu Shyi-kun stopped in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, on his way back from a visit to the United States due to a typhoon, but aside from that, this is the first trip to Japan since the break in ties. The Asahi Shimbun assessed that it is highly unusual for a sitting Taiwanese premier to visit Japan when diplomatic relations between Japan and Taiwan are cut off.
Some observers say China may react negatively. In particular, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested the possibility of "intervening in the event of a Taiwan contingency" in the Diet in Nov. last year, tensions between China and Japan have continued, and China could use this as a pretext to ratchet up pressure.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, then vice president, visited Japan in July 2022 to pay respects shortly after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died. Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs Director General Lin Chia-lung also visited Japan on a private schedule in July last year and met with Prime Minister Takaichi, who was then a member of the Diet. The Chinese government lodged strong protests with Japan at the time of Lai's and Lin's visits. The Asahi Shimbun reported that while Japan has taken a cautious stance on visits by senior Taiwanese officials such as the premier in light of political relations with China, there have been several recent visits to Japan by high-ranking Taiwanese officials.