From this morning's newsstand issue of the Taiwan News:
"President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 congratulated Tarō Asō 麻生太郎 upon his being named the 92nd prime minister of Japan and expressed confidence in the development of relations between Taiwan and Japan, Foreign Minister Francisco H.L. Ou said yesterday. 'President Ma has sent out a congratulatory telegraph to Asō through the representative Office in Tōkyō 東京,' Ou said, adding that Ma and is optimistic that relations between Taiwan and Japan will be further consolidated."
"Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) 中華国民外交部 yesterday declined to comment on former president Lee Teng-hui's 李登輝 remarks that the disputed Tiaoyutai (Senkaku) Islands 尖閣諸島 belong to Japan, but Foreign Minister Francisco H.L. Ou reasserted Taiwan's sovereignty over the island group."
Asō is perceived to be a nationalist, and has made a number of remarks in recent years suggesting that China is a military threat in the East Asian region, referring to Taiwan as if it were a country (you mean it isn't?) and praising Japan's colonial legacy in Taiwan. However, as prime minister, Asō will probably continue the softer line towards the Chinese that was taken by the previous administrations of Shinzō Abe 安倍晋三 and Yasuo Fukuda 福田康夫. In any event, Japanese media is speculating that Asō will call a general election for late October or early November, after an emergency economic stimulus package is enacted by the Diet 国会, so there is some question as to how long Asō may actually stay in office.
Meanwhile, the Senkakus (as the islands are known outside of the Chinese-speaking world, i.e. everywhere else on the planet) raise their heads again, thanks to Lee. At the end of his four-day visit to Okinawa 沖縄:
"...he repeated that Tiaoyutai Islands were the territory of Japan. He said that he had asked Lo Kuen-tsan, the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office 台北経済文化代表処 in Japan, why Tiaoyutai Islands should be considered part of Taiwan. Lo answered that 'it was based on geographic reasons.' Lee said it was unreasonable, for in this way, Taiwan and Okinawa both belonged to China. Lee also criticized former Premier You Hsi-kun 游錫堃 for saying that Tiaoyutai Islands were part of Toucheng 頭城 in Yilan 宜蘭. 'It was stupid,' he said. 'Did he mean that Tiaoyutai Islands had been moved from Japan’s territory?' Lee also denounced Premier Liu Chau-shiuan's war of words with Japan over Tiaoyutai Islands, saying that Taiwan was not capable of waging war against Japan."
As the earlier article about MOFA noted in its last paragraph:
"Lee is widely seen by the Taiwanese public as a Japanophile. He has been criticized in the past for similar comments, which are seen as betraying Taiwan's territorial interest in favor of Japan."
All true, of course, but Lee does have a point. The Wikipedia entry on the Senkakus gives an overview of the various claims , but, basically, the United States administered the islands from the end of World War Two until 1972, when they were included in the reversion of Okinawa to Japan. Taiwan's long-standing claims on the islands go all the way back to the mid-1960's, after geological surveys suggested that there may be deposits of oil and gas in the waters surrounding the islands. Strictly a coincidence, of course.
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