Japan is planning to include Taiwan among the names of countries to be read aloud during flower offerings at former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state funeral on Tuesday, government sources have said.
The plan appears to have been made out of consideration for the close ties Abe had built with Taiwan until he was killed by a shooter during a campaign event in early July. If carried out, the sources said Japan is likely to refer to the self-ruled island as "Taiwan," not by its official "Republic of China" name.
But treating Taiwan as a country at the state funeral could still trigger a strong reaction from China, which regards the democratic island as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.