TAIPEI: Early rising seniors have gathered for years to exercise among the yellow lotus blossoms and fuchsia rhododendrons of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park, the sprawling gardens in this island’s capital. Now local residents stretch their limbs in slow-moving tai chi routines amid a landscape distinctly altered by the addition of 450 cherry trees, a national symbol of Japan.

The trees, set in a park commemorating a leader who fought Japan during the Second World War, are among the first of more than 10,000 that Japanese and Taiwanese groups intend to plant across Taiwan.

They are seen as emblems of the newly blooming relationship between the Pacific neighbours — a tie that only underscores the competition for regional influence between Japan and China, East Asia’s two major powers.

With Japan seeking to shed a half-century of pacifism and reassert itself in world affairs, and China acquiring vastly larger economic and military might, relations between the two are as tense as they have been at any time since the Second World War.

Nowhere is their contest more visible than here in Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. In recent months, Japan has made a series of unprecedented overtures toward Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945. In Tokyo, leading politicians are increasingly adopting the view that Japan must come to the island’s aid in the event of Chinese aggression.

Many analysts say they believe Japan’s evolving interest in Taiwan could tilt the regional balance of power. The United States, which has diplomatic relations with mainland China, is nonetheless sworn by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to defend the island territory if it is attacked.

“The peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and security of the Asian Pacific region are the common concerns for not only Taiwan, but also Japan and the United States,” Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said during an interview last week.

Therefore, he said, “Japan has a requirement and an obligation to come to the defence of Taiwan.”

Like many countries, Japan severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in the 1970s in deference to Beijing’s ‘one-China’ policy. But lately, Japan has been less particular about its rule of maintaining a careful distance. Twice in the past two months, Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Aso, has angered China by publicly referring to Taiwan as ‘a country’. Last year, the Tokyo government dropped visa requirements for visitors from Taiwan. And Japanese and US leaders have for the first time jointly declared protection of the Taiwan Strait a ‘common strategic objective’.

In a less public gesture, Yoichi Nagano, formerly a general in the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force, the army, is serving as the first military attaché at Tokyo’s de facto embassy in Taipei, the Interchange Association. In an interview, Nagano said he conducts meetings with Taiwanese government and military figures and sends regular dispatches to Tokyo.

In 2004, a group of Japanese legislators formed a committee on Taiwanese security. This May, Tokyo is set to allow former president Lee Teng-hui, the Japanese-educated champion of Taiwanese democracy, to visit Japan for the second time in 18 months. So-called Track 2 meetings between Japanese and Taiwanese politicians, academics and retired military officials have intensified, according to officials in Taiwan and Japan.

These moves coincide with the rise to power in Japan of a new crop of hawks in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. During his five years in office, Koizumi has pushed aside rivals in the LDP who had long stressed the importance of maintaining a respectful distance from Taiwan.

The shift also comes as China’s military build-up is causing growing concern in Japan. The Beijing government boosted military spending by 15 per cent this year. Tensions were particularly heightened after riots broke out across China last year against Japan’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and the publication in Japan of textbooks allegedly whitewashing the country’s militarist past.

The Japanese view a potential Chinese takeover of Taiwan gravely. Such a move would give Beijing a perch for its missiles a mere 66 miles from Japanese territory while helping China to control the shipping lanes that carry the bulk of Middle East oil coming to Japan.

Japan has countered with uncharacteristic assertiveness. In November 2004, Japanese warships chased a Chinese submarine that had entered Japanese waters near Taiwan in what was widely seen as a test of Japan’s resolve in defending the strategically sensitive zone.

Koizumi’s government is also investing millions of dollars in a joint missile defence system with the United States. Some analysts say Taiwan could eventually become part of the system, turning it into a three-way defence against Chinese missiles.

Japan’s pacifist constitution limits the country’s ability to deploy its military abroad. But political leaders in both Japan and Taiwan are embracing a broad interpretation of a 1999 law allowing Japan to respond to threats in nearby waters. This, they say, could provide a legal basis for Japan to join the United States in responding to Chinese aggression.

Most of these leaders agree that Japan would be able to contribute rear-guard refuelling, transportation and medical services and perhaps conduct search-and-rescue missions inside Taiwan. If Japanese ships or personnel providing such assistance were attacked, ‘it would mean war’, said Tokuichiro Tamazawa, a leading LDP lawmaker long involved in the Taiwan issue. —Dawn/The Washington Post News Service