The Sazanami passed through the Taiwan Strait last month to become the first Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer to do so, drawing praise in Taiwan for what it saw as a shift in Japan's security policy.
Although Taiwanese authorities have refrained from commenting on the Sazanami's passage through the critical strait that lies between China and Taiwan as the Japanese government has not officially acknowledged it, experts said it is significant that Japan, as a regional power, sent a clear message to China that the Taiwan Strait is "international waters."
In recent years, the United States, which considers the Taiwan Strait as international waters and conducts "freedom of navigation" operations there, as well as some other foreign countries, including Canada, Britain and France, have sent warships through the strait.
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