Tokyo has pushed back against a Wall Street Journal report claiming Donald Trump warned Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to avoid stoking tensions with China over Taiwan, insisting no such conversation took place.
At a Thursday briefing, Japan’s top government spokesperson Minoru Kihara flatly rejected the report.
“There is no such fact,” he said, declining to elaborate on what he described as a private “diplomatic exchange”.
The Journal had reported that, shortly after Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week, the US leader called Takaichi and advised her “not to provoke Beijing on the question of the island’s sovereignty”, citing unnamed Japanese officials and an American familiar with the call.
The backdrop is an increasingly volatile stand-off between Asia’s two biggest economies. Friction spiked after Takaichi suggested earlier this month that Japan could intervene militarily if China attacked self-ruled Taiwan, a remark that enraged Beijing.
Following that, China said Xi raised the issue directly with Trump, calling Taiwan’s return to China an “integral part of the post-war international order”. Trump has remained publicly silent, a silence that has unsettled officials in Tokyo.
Takaichi, for her part, acknowledged speaking with Trump but framed the call as cordial.
“President Trump said we are very close friends, and he offered that I should feel free to call him anytime,” she said, adding that they discussed his conversation with Xi and broader bilateral relations.
China has responded with a mix of diplomacy and deterrence. Tokyo’s ambassador was summoned, Chinese citizens were cautioned against travelling to Japan, and Beijing warned of rising anti-Chinese hostility.
The Chinese embassy in Tokyo claimed Chinese nationals had reported “being insulted, beaten and injured for no reason”, though Japan’s Foreign Ministry denied any crime spike, citing National Police Agency data showing murders had halved compared to the same period last year.
China has also reportedly moved to reimpose a ban on all Japanese seafood imports, deepening the economic fallout of the dispute.
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun demanded a formal retraction of Takaichi’s comments, dismissing Japan’s handling of the matter as political theatre.
“The Japanese side’s attempt to downplay, dodge, and cover up Prime Minister Takaichi’s seriously erroneous remarks… is self-deception,” he said. “China will never accept this.”
Behind the scenes, unease is growing in Japan over Trump’s strategic priorities. Some officials fear he could trade off Taiwan’s security in exchange for smoother economic ties with Beijing.
While Washington’s envoy has reiterated US support for Japan in the face of Chinese “coercion”, senior lawmakers in Tokyo privately admit they had hoped for a stronger, more vocal endorsement from their key ally.
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