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Post 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami relations
A few days after Japan was struck by the earthquake, the Taiwanese government pledged to donate 100 million NTD to assist Japan. Many Taiwanese citizens and news media also followed suit and urged people to donate to Japan. By May 2012, Taiwan has donated up to 6.6 billion NTD from the government and private donations combined. By March 2013, donations have reached 260.64 million USD, which is the highest amount from any nation despite only having 23 million people. At this time, it is known that 90 percent of the amount came from private donations. Such number of donations have been the result of Japan's aid to Taiwan when a powerful earthquake hit Taiwan hard in September 21, 1999, bu sending a 145-person rescue team and donating 37 million in aid of the catastrophe. Taiwan's donations assisted Fukushima in performing several vital reconstructions, which include rebuilding schools and hospitals.

Despite Taiwan being that nation that donated the most amount of money to Japan in response to the earthquake, the government didn't publicly thank Taiwan along with other nations. The Japanese government placed ads in multiple nations to show gratitude of the donations, but not Taiwan. This prompted Japanese Citizens to thank Taiwan individually. Japanese designer Maiko Kissaka started a fundraiser on April 19, 2020 in an attempt to place ads on two newspapers to show gratitude to the Taiwanese people for donations. This started a series of attempts from individuals and organizations to thank Taiwan for the donations across the next few years. A notable organization named Arigatou Taiwan was created for the sole purpose of thanking Taiwan and planned to hold an event each year starting on 2012, and managed to include several earthquake survivors at the event in 2015. In 2018, local governments which were affected by the earthquake started fundraisers to show gratitude to Taiwan's help back at 2011.

The Japanese government didn't hold any public activities to thank Taiwan at the first few years after the earthquake, and wrote a letter in private to the Taiwanese government to express gratitude instead. However, starting in 2014, the government started holding events publicly in Taiwan to express gratitude, starting from the governments of six prefectures in Japan collaborated for a four-day event in Taipei, Taiwan, aimed to repay the generosity during Japan's earthquake. During the 5th anniversary event of the 2011 earthquake in Taiwan, the ambassador to Taiwan from Japan described Taiwan as a "true friend" and further stated "With the gratitude for the generosity of our friends in Taiwan, we vow to try our best to strengthen the relationship between Japan and Taiwan." Japan also stated that it's donations of 1.2 million USD to Taiwan due to a powerful earthquake hitting southern Taiwan is an attempt to repay Taiwan's generosity a few years ago. In 2019, the 8th anniversary of the earthquake was held, in which the the ambassador to Taiwan from Japan stated that "There was already a special bond between Japan and Taiwan before the disaster" and that "The northeastern Japan earthquake made [Japan] see it more clearly." These statement contradict what was suggested from Taiwanese news papers which stated that the donations Taiwan contributed was a turning point between the relations of the two nations. However, it is undeniable that Taiwan and Japan's relations have strengthened a lot due to the exchanges after the catastrophe, both on a governmental and private level. In August, 2019, Japan times published an article "Taiwan's democracy is worth defending", which is a proof of the improved relations as such controversial articles supporting Taiwan are rarely seen on large non-Taiwanese news media.

Due to the closer relations Japan and Taiwan has after the catastrophic event, tourism bloomed between both nations. Japanese tourism to Taiwan rose by 19.9 percent in 2011, which comes with an increase of nearly 50 percent exchange revenue due to this change.