provoke China over Taiwan's sovereignty. The row between Asia's two biggest economies began after Takaichi suggested this month that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory. According to Beijing's foreign ministry, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pressed the issue in a phone call with Trump on Monday, saying Taiwan's return was an ‘integral part of the post-war international order’.

The WSJ reported on Thursday that, shortly after that discussion, "Trump set up a call with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing on the question of the island's sovereignty". It cited unidentified Japanese officials and an American briefed on the call. However, Japan's top government spokesman Minoru Kihara denied the Journal's account.

"The article has a passage that says, on the question of Taiwan's sovereignty, (Trump) advised her not to provoke the Chinese government. There is no such fact," Kihara told a regular media briefing, without elaborating. Takaichi said in her reporting of the call with Trump that they discussed the US president's conversation with Xi, as well as bilateral relations. "President Trump said we are very close friends, and he offered that I should feel free to call him anytime," she said. (Bssnews)