It’s time for Japan and Taiwan to deepen security cooperation

Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen government made a dramatic gesture toward Japan
earlier in 2016 by referring the state’s dispute over Okinotori to the
United Nations (UN). Since then, the government has made repeated
gestures presenting a new and positive side to Japan-Taiwan relations in
an era of heightened regional volatility. The May 2016 elections
that brought Tsai to power illustrated that the Taiwanese population
gave her and her government a major mandate for change. For the first
time in history, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has control
over both the executive and legislative. The time has never been better
for the government to reset Japan-Taiwan relations and “team-up,”
especially in light of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s
poorly-calculated tilt to China, and a possible power shuffle to the
south of both Japan and Taiwan.