Japanese official's visit to Taiwan seriously damages ties

The visit to Taiwan by Japanese senior vice-minister of internal affairs and communications on Saturday was provocative and breaches the commitment made by Japan to interact with Taiwan only at nongovernmental and local levels.

It will definitely worsen relations between Beijing and Tokyo, which are already tense because of the Shinzo Abe administration's refusal to face up squarely to history and its previous provocative actions.

The one-day trip has set a bad precedent for bilateral ties. The fact that Jiro Akama became the highest-ranking Japanese government official to visit the island in an official capacity since 1972, when Beijing and Tokyo normalized their diplomatic relations, contradicted his claim that Japan's "relations with Taiwan are unchanged" despite the visit.