A significant number of the Japanese public has backed Yoshihide Suga's government policy to pursue peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a poll has said amid growing distance with next-door neighbour China.
As many as 74 per cent of respondents in the poll supported Japan's engagement toward stability in the Taiwan Strait, while 13 per cent were opposed, Nikkei Asia reported while citing a survey it conducted with Nikkei TV Tokyo.
This comes in the backdrop of the first US-Japan in-person meet of US President Joe Biden's term. In a joint statement, Suga and Biden had underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
"We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues," the joint statement document said.
For the Biden-Suga meeting, 50 per cent of respondents gave a thumbs up, while 32 per cent did not.
Meanwhile, the overall approval rating of the Japanese Prime Minister was 47 per cent, roughly on par with the 45 per cent in the March survey.
The said poll was conducted in Japan by Nikkei Research in which people over 18 years were interviewed, and 1,026 valid responses were counted.
The Taiwan Strait is a 180-kilometer-wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is currently part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north.
China has been increasing its maritime activities in both the South and the East China Seas over the past few months, partly in response to Beijing's concerns over the increasing US military presence in the region because of escalating Sino-US tensions.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.
( With inputs from ANI )
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