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Taiwan president shows support for Japan with sushi lunch amid China dispute

Published: 20 Nov. 2025, 16:47

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te waves during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Taiwan, on Oct. 10. [AP/YONHAP]

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te showed his support for Japan on Thursday by eating Japan-sourced sushi for lunch after China indicated that it would ban all imports of Taipei's seafood due to the escalating dispute over the Chinese-claimed island.

Tensions between China and Japan ignited after new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said this month that a Chinese attack on Taiwan that threatens Japan's survival could trigger a military response.

Lai uploaded photos showing himself eating a sushi lunch — of yellowtail from Japan's Kagoshima and scallops from Hokkaido — onto his social media accounts.

“Today's lunch is sushi and miso soup,” he wrote on his Facebook and Instagram feeds, using the same wording in Japanese for his post on X.

Taiwan's government, which rejects Beijing's claims of sovereignty, has been subject to similar food export bans — including of Taiwanese pineapples and fish — by China in recent years, which Taipei has said is part of a Chinese pressure campaign.

Speaking to reporters at parliament earlier on Thursday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said that instances of China using economic coercion and military intimidation to “bully other nations are already too numerous to mention individually.”

“At this critical juncture, we must also support Japan in effectively stabilizing the situation and halting the Chinese communists' [...] behavior," he added.

Japan and Taiwan have a close but unofficial relationship and deep cultural and business ties. Japan ruled Taiwan from 1895 until the end of World War II in 1945.

Reuters