When it comes to increasingly fraught U.S.-China relations, Japan is facing a “be careful what you wish for” moment.
Tokyo, which has long pushed the U.S. to take a tougher stance against an aggressive China, is now finding itself caught in the middle as the two superpowers duke it out in the economic and security spheres — and over the response to the coronavirus.
But regardless of the results of this fight, from which a clear winner is unlikely to emerge any time soon, if at all, Japan must thread the needle with both countries, something Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already proven successful at doing.