Taiwan names Japan’s former defence chief as Cabinet consultant

TAIPEI – Taiwan named a former head of the Japanese defence forces as an adviser, according to officials in the archipelago’s government, a move coming as the two governments deal with China’s increasing assertiveness.

Mr Shigeru Iwasaki, the chief of staff of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF) from 2012 to 2014, was named a consultant to Taiwan’s Cabinet, said the two officials who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive issue.

The Cabinet usually does not announce such appointments, one of the officials said.

China has lodged protests with the Japanese side over the appointment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a press briefing on March 21. She reiterated the Taiwan question is “China’s internal affair that brooks no external interference”. 

Both Taiwan and Japan deal with increasing Chinese aggression in the region. Beijing held

military exercises around Taiwan’s main island

this week, linking them to recent US moves backing the self-ruled archipelago. China wants to bring Taiwan under its control someday, by force if necessary.

China and Japan are locked in a territorial dispute in the East China Sea. Relations between the two sides have also suffered over issues like a ban imposed by Beijing on seafood from Japan following the release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Japan and China are set to hold their first economic dialogue in six years on March 22, an event aimed at reducing those tensions. That is the same day as

a meeting in Tokyo

between Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-Yul.

During Mr Iwasaki’s stint as Japan’s top uniformed officer, tensions escalated between Tokyo and Beijing over islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Japan scrambled fighter jets and increased its coast guard and naval presence in response to a rise in Chinese activity around the islands, which are known as the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

As SDF chief, Mr Iwasaki played a leading role in developing joint operations for the Japanese military and coordinating with the US armed forces. Bloomberg