Japan Aims to Leverage Close Ties with U.S. to Fend Off China’s Information War Over Taiwan

By Yujiro Okabe and Yuko Mukai / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

15:50 JST, November 26, 2025

Japan aims to leverage its robust alliance with the United States as a countermeasure against the information war blending fact and fiction launched by China, which intends to rally the United States and the international community.

The day after direct phone talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi emphasized the Japan-U.S. alliance in a phone call with Trump on Tuesday.

Takaichi addressed reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office at about 11 a.m., only about 30 minutes after the phone call with Trump, and said she discussed the “recent U.S.-China relations” with Trump, including the outcome of the leaders’ phone call from the previous night. Takaichi underscored the closeness of her relationship with Trump, saying they can call each other anytime.

Behind her proactive outreach lies a sense of crisis in the government that the U.S.-China talks “could fuel the perception that Trump is siding with China over Japan.” In fact, Beijing has promoted the narrative that Trump expressed understanding of China’s position on Taiwan, clearly aiming to co-opt the United States and drive a wedge between Tokyo and Washington.

While Trump, seeking gains in trade negotiations with Beijing, aims to visit China next April, he values allies on issues like stabilizing the supply chain for rare earths, where China has tightened export controls.

A U.S. official from the Republican Party told The Yomiuri Shimbun that Trump’s real intention was to maintain a certain distance from the Japan-China confrontation while keeping China in check.

Trump’s prompt phone call to Takaichi right after speaking with Xi is seen as “a sign that he cares about relations with Japan even while moving forward in dialogue with China,” according to a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official.

While Tokyo intends to keep reaching out to Washington, strengthening messaging to the international community is also urgent. China’s U.N. ambassador sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres raising issues over Takaichi’s remark in the Diet earlier this month about Taiwan. Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki sent a rebuttal letter to Guterres on Tuesday, insisting that Japan’s defense policy is “exclusively defense-oriented” and defines the situations in which the right of collective self-defense would be exercised “in a restrictive manner.”

His letter stated: “China’s assertion that Japan would exercise the right of self-defense even in the absence of an armed attack is erroneous.”

China has criticized Japan over the Self-Defense Forces’ missile deployment on Yonaguni Island in Okinawa Prefecture and even invoked the “former enemy states clause” in the U.N. Charter. China appears to be attempting to turn Takaichi’s remark into an international issue and create the impression that “Japan unilaterally altered” the status quo regarding Taiwan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Tuesday that “Japan is open” to direct dialogue with China to resolve the situation.

“We cannot accept China’s claims which contradict facts and will firmly refute them,” he said.

A Japan-China battle that is conscious of international public opinion will likely continue.