Japanese lawmakers travel to Beijing, seeking to mend ties after Takaichi's Taiwan remark fallout

TOKYO (AP) — A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers, including one from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's governing party, headed to Beijing on Monday to meet with Chinese officials for the first time since ties between the two Asian rivals deteriorated after Takaichi's comment on Taiwan angered China.

Japan seeks a chance to mend its strained ties with China as tensions have spilled over into the economy.

The group, which includes Gaku Hashimoto, a lawmaker of Takaichi's governing Liberal Democratic Party and a former health and welfare vice minister, and a lawmaker each from two opposition parties Komeito and the Centrist Reform Alliance, is to meet with Chinese Communist Party officials during their visit through Thursday.

"Communication has been severed in all areas and we are beginning to see their impact in many areas,” Shinichi Isa, a top spokesperson for the CRA party, told reporters before leaving Tokyo's Haneda airport. “I hope we can somehow find a clue to restart a dialogue.”

Isa, who has served as a diplomat at the Japanese Embassy in China, wrote on X earlier this month that bilateral ties have sunk to their worst since the 1972 normalization of relations. He wrote that officials had always remained in communication even during previous lows: “Now all channels between officials and ministries have been cut off.”

The situation is not in the national interest of either side, Isa said at the time, and the Chinese side accepted a request from Japanese lawmakers for a “window for dialogue.”

Soon after taking office, Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a survival-threatening situation” for Japan that would justify the use of force, enraging Beijing.

The remark crossed what China considers a red line in its relations with other countries about Taiwan, which is a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory.

Takaichi has not retracted her comment, but when marking Japan's World War II surrender on Aug. 15, she prayed remotely instead of visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, seen by China and South Korea as lacking remorse for Japan's wartime militarism and atrocities.