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U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says

The Pentagon is urging Japan to make clear the role it would play in the event of a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan, a media report said Saturday, with the U.S. Defense Department’s No. 3 official later appearing to confirm the push.
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby has been broaching the sensitive issue in meetings with Japanese and Australian officials in recent months, the Financial Times (FT) quoted unidentified sources as saying.

Following the report’s publication, Colby said in a post to X that linked to the report that the Defense Department is focused on implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda of “restoring deterrence and achieving peace through strength.” He said that included “urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense.”

Quoting an unidentified U.S. defense official, the FT said the “animating theme” of the discussions with allies was “to intensify and accelerate efforts to strengthen deterrence in a balanced, equitable way.”

But the move reportedly caught Japanese officials off-guard since the U.S. itself maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether or not it would defend democratic Taiwan. China claims the self-ruled island as its own and has vowed to unify it with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Colby hinted in his post on X that moves by the Pentagon under Trump had caused unease among some U.S. partners, but emphasized that the U.S. side “will not be deterred from advancing his agenda.”

“Of course, some among our allies might not welcome frank conversations,” he wrote. “But many … are seeing the urgent need to step up and are doing so.”

Asked to confirm the report, the Pentagon referred The Japan Times to Colby’s X post and one by chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell quoting a media commentator praising the FT story.

“The Department of Defense is focused on preventing war, with a strong shield of deterrence,” Parnell said in quoting the commentator. “That requires strength — but it is a simple fact that our allies must also do their part.”

Washington is Taiwan’s most important global backer and arms supplier — despite not having formal diplomatic ties with Taipei. Trump has refused to say what he would do in the event of a Taiwan emergency, differing from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who deviated from U.S. policy several times by hinting that the United States would defend the island.

Tokyo, which also does not have diplomatic ties with Taipei, has also become more vocal about its concerns over Taiwan in recent years. The Chinese military has ramped-up training and drills near the island, unnerving Japan and prompting senior government and ruling party officials to say that an emergency over Taiwan would also represent an emergency for Japan.

Those fears are widely seen as a driving factor behind Japan’s push to beef up its defense capabilities, with Tokyo saying in a defense white paper last year that China’s string of large-scale military exercises around Taiwan likely “demonstrated at least part of Beijing’s invasion strategy.”

Japan in March unveiled an evacuation plan for the roughly 120,000 people on remote southwestern islands near Taiwan, drawn up with a possible conflict in mind.

The U.S. and Japan are also widely believed to be working on concrete operation plans in the event of an emergency over Taiwan. Recent bilateral and trilateral military drills involving the U.S., Japan and Australia — including this month’s Southern Jackaroo and Talisman Sabre exercises — are largely focused on interoperability with a Taiwan contingency in mind.

But any military response by Japan would face constitutional and legal restraints, though these have been loosened over the last decade. Much would also depend heavily on whether China struck U.S. or Self-Defense Force bases in Japan.

Japanese leaders would have to formally declare such a contingency as being at a certain level to allow the SDF to respond. That process would likely take some time to unfold — a likely concern of Washington — although the severity of the situation could quicken decision-making.

Experts say that in the event of a Taiwan contingency, time would be of the essence when making critical policy decisions.

“The allies should avoid, at all costs, a situation in which the U.S. is engaged in the defense of Taiwan while Tokyo debates its response,” James J. Przystup, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute think tank, wrote in an analysis released Thursday.

“Failure to respond in a timely fashion would put the alliance at risk,” he added.

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