Japan's Taiwan Policy in New Era of Alliance Dilemma: Multidimensional Hedging

Despite being an important player, Japan has long been underestimated in heavily US-China-centric studies on the Taiwan Strait issue. Japan's Taiwan policy is commonly considered subordinate to the US Taiwan policy. This research argues that Japan is not simply following the United States, but that its Taiwan policy and Taiwan Strait strategy encompasses important considerations related to national strategy. A new perspective of alliance management is adopted to explain the evolution of Japan's Taiwan policy. It is found that Japan has been taking advantage of the Taiwan Strait issue to maintain the alliance, achieve normalization, and wield larger influence in Asia and the world.