A decline in diplomatic relations masks a surge in Japan’s economic ties to China, says this researcher. TAIWAN: For China-Japan relations, 2026 feels like a strange moment, perhaps the worst of times, and the best. Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a landslide victory in the snap election on Feb 8, a move she framed as a way to consolidate support for a tougher foreign policy after declaring that a Chinese military threat to Taiwan would prompt a Japanese response, even after that