Japanese PM Candidates Welcome Taiwan's CPTPP Application

As part of an online town hall meeting ahead of the 29 September Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership contest all four candidates for the position stated their approval of Taiwan's application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

• Taiwan officially launched its application to join the group yesterday, a week after China also sought to join the bloc.
• The response to Taiwan's application in Japan has, as could be expected, been much warmer than it was to Beijing's, where senior Japanese politicians raised the issue of Chinese SOEs. Japan's Minister for Economic Revitalisation Yasutoshi Nishimura stated that "We need to watch carefully whether (China) is ready to meet high-standard CPTPP rules."
• Should Japan seek to promote Taiwan's application while simultaneously blocking China's attempt at entry it would likely provoke a severe response from Beijing. It should be noted that given both China and Taiwan currently ban the import of food products from five Japanese prefectures around the Fukushima area, the Japanese gov't would be unlikely to approve either of their applications.