If the Taiwanese presidential election, which was held last March, can be likened to Japanese sumo wrestling, the national election, which took place on December 11, can be also explained by an analogy with American football.

This is what a Japanese expert in Taiwan analyzed for those who visited Taipei. He used the two kinds of sports as analogies to explain different features of the two different elections.

In sumo wrestling matches, two wrestlers fight each other inside the sumo ring. Their battle is over in a wink after they clash head-on with each other. On the other hand, in an American football game, two teams try to get the ball which is thrown from players of one team on the front line to those on the backline. The game is determined during the course of the two teams' scrambling for the ball.

The showdown between Chen Suibian and Lian Chan in the March 20 presidential election can be likened to a sumo match. In the Kyushu sumo tournament, Hakuo, 19, pulled down Mongolian grand champion Asashoryu. In the sumo match, Hakuo played the same role as Chen did in the election and Asashoryu's role was like Lian's. Hakuo threw the grand champion at the last moment when he was at the edge of the sumo ring. From a Japanese point of view, the Taiwanese presidential election is a showdown based on power and skill. Victory in it strongly reflects individual factors.

However, the congressional election is different from the presidential one. The parliamentary election, in which two parties fight over seats, was likened to typical American football games. The Nationalist Party's symbol color is blue and the Democratic Progressive Party's color is green. The two parties exploit tactics under the direction of their commanders. Their game plan is like a big military operation. The green color troops charged ferociously. Commander Chen Suibian hoisted the campaign flag of ''Make justice on Taiwan island.'' However, his target was to get votes from independents by exploiting the showdown against the Nationalist Party.

Those who know American football can understand the Taiwanese congressional elections. Maintaining charges themselves enables a team to move ahead. It can gain a score by successfully entering the opponent's field. Chen ordered his party to charge again and again while skillfully manipulating the issues of the election. The Nationalist Party was unable to take the initiative in agenda-setting and had no option but to wait for a blunder by the Democratic Progressive Party. However, later on, the Nationalist Party seized caught a chance to fight back strongly across the board.

During the course of the Machiavellian election campaign, Taiwan could not avoid facing a situation where diplomatic issues triggered internal conflicts. The country has to pay the price for that. Many Japanese friends, who were interested in the latest election, unanimously asked the same question. They were afraid whether or not the current situation in Taiwan could change, if the Chen government continued to pursue its current policy line. Can Taiwan's democratic achievements be secured, if the current situation cannot develop in a stable way?

This question is also naturally linked to another central question. What do you mean by the current situation? Who decides the definition of the current situation? Whatever the answer may be, Taiwan cannot determine that by itself and it has to consider international reaction. This is what the Taiwanese government must understand and its necessity is beyond question. From this point of view, internal battles to obtain political power excessively ruin diplomatic bargaining ability and cause concern about Taiwan for many friends abroad. Keizo Takemi, a congressman of the Liberal Democratic Party, said that, if the Democratic Progressive Party obtained more than half of the seats, the result would greatly affect the relationship between Taiwan and China. Therefore, when the Chen government calls for justice for Taiwan, it had also better pay attention to international society, which is looking at the situation in Taiwan after the election. That is because the result of the election could be a reflection of the turning point which determines whether or not Taiwan's democracy would be successful in the future.