Japan's Taiwan Policy In The Post-cold War Evolution

With the rapid development of China mainland, the intensification of military alliance between the United States and Japan, the more advance of "normal country" of Japan, the Taiwan issue has become the core security issues of Asia-Pacific among China, the U.S., and Japan after the end of the Cold War. We defined the Japan's policy toward the Taiwan Strait with three variables, U.S.-Japan alliance, the policy of "two China", and the United Nation principle with China according to former studies. The interaction among the three variables basically reflects the track of Japan's policy toward the Taiwan Strait. From the macro-angle, the most important impetuses which decide the evolvement of Japan's policy toward Taiwan Strait is the interaction among the triangle relations, and the power game between China and Japan which have structural contradiction. From the micro-angle, the impetuses depend on the changing of Japan's foreign policy mechanism, from civilian to party.The triangle relations among China, the United States, and Japan have transformed from the mode of "menage a trois" to the mode of relative "romantic triangle", the United States has occupied the pivot position in the triangle relations. With the strategic support of the U.S., the U.S.-Japan alliance has got the pivot position in Japan's policy toward the Taiwan Strait. What's more, in the concern of the fast speed of "normal country" of Japan, the force of supporting Taiwan has expand in Japan political circles, then the Japan's policy toward the Taiwan Strait has developed from the mode of "stable marriage" in the Cold War to the mode of relative "romantic triangle" after the end of Cold War, even the mode of relative "menage a trois" in the government of Junichiro Koizumi.The most important reason why Japan's policy toward the Taiwan Strait changed is the transformation of East Asia structural powers, and we can divide into four points, these are national interest, power distribution, decision making mechanism, and perception toward other countries. In a word, Japan has regarded the Taiwan issue as the advantaged strategic interest in the pursuit of "normal country", and becoming the political and military power. The purpose of Japan is to intervene Taiwan issue with the U.S.-Japan alliance, prevent the power expand from China, maintain the pivot position in East Asia, and the consensus of Japan Neozoic politicians nowadays.With the mitigation between the China mainland and Taiwan island, the better development of Sino-US relations, the advance of the Sino-Japan relations, the triangle relations among China, the United States, and Japan having become the mode of relative "menage a trois", and the policy of Japan toward the Taiwan Strait will maintain the relative stably mode of "romantic triangle". However, with the strengthen of US-Japan alliance and the military deterrence toward Taiwan Strait of the United States, and the basic difference hasn't been eradicated, Japan will still play the dualism policy toward Taiwan Strait, pay more attention to Sino-Japan relations, and attach more importance to the Taiwan, the relations of Sino-Japan is not developed fluently. Then, China mainland should sustain the better relations of between China mainland and the U.S., and construct "win-win" relations with Japan, and Taiwan.