No end in sight to spat between Japan and China over Taiwan, as neither Tokyo nor Beijing shows signs of backing down.

Diplomatic crises often change the stakes for each, and for the Japanese, the consequences of this crisis are multifaceted. Japan’s new prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, was the initial focal point. As the Washington Post editorial board aptly noted,

The Japanese entertainment industry has become increasingly reliant on China in recent years. China is the world’s second-largest market for anime, with fantasy films like “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle,” which was released last month, rising to the top of the Chinese box office.

China is remaking Asia’s security map, but not in the way it intends. From water cannon confrontations in the South China Sea to increasingly sharp rhetoric around Taiwan, Beijing’s behavior is driving its neighbors to welcome something once unthinkable: a larger security role for Japan.

The use of both international lawfare and historical narrative warfare signals a major, under-recognized shift in China’s Taiwan strategy and its approach to Japan.

In this photo provided by Japan’s Ministry of Defense, a Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber, center, is seen close to a YS-11EB electronic-intelligence aircraft, partly seen at left, of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force over the East China Sea on July 9, 2025.

Japan’s representative at the United Nations submitted a rebuttal against the latest Chinese letter to the UN, as the spat between the two nations over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan continues to simmer.

Beijing returns to economic coercion to silence Japan’s new Prime Minister.

At the same time, the barrage of vitriol unleashed by China castigating Takaichi as a warmongering militarist includes a reprehensible threat by the Chinese consul-general in Osaka about beheading Takaichi.

Japan's newly elected first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, appears to be a modern "Iron lady" in the mold of Margaret Thatcher with all the controversy that entails. However successful her tenure is, it is sure to reshape Japan's place in the world ...