Japan/Taiwan

Japan/Taiwan is a semi-popular heterosexual pairing in the series Axis Powers Hetalia. It involves the two characters Japan and Taiwan.

It is commonly referred to as 菊と梅 (Kiku to Ume), Chrysanthemum and Plum, in the Japanese fandom.

Fan Speculations
So far, Taiwan has not had any shown interaction in the webcomic with Japan, but an early illustration by Hidekaz Himaruya (shown on the right) has her poking China on the cheek and telling him to leave Japan alone, which indicates that she prefers Japan over China and has led some fans to believe that she has a crush on Japan.

Due to their lack of canon interaction, fan interpretations of Japan and Taiwan's relationship are largely speculative, but it's generally assumed that China raised the other Asian nations as a family unit and that Japan and Taiwan hence likely grew up together, which would have given them time to interact with and potentially develop feelings for each other.

A popular fanon theory is that Taiwan was engaged or married to Japan during her time as part of the Japanese Empire, based on the real-life history between the two countries from Japan's annexation of Taiwan after the Second Sino-Japanese War (1895) to the end of World War II (1945) that involved Japan working to modernize Taiwan and turn it into a showpiece colony. However, considering that Taiwan was ceded back to China at the end of WWII, many fans of this pairing portray it as a tragic one, with Taiwan being in love with Japan (and vice versa) but being forced to leave him.

Another common depiction of their relationship has Taiwan's feelings for Japan being purely one-sided with Japan viewing her as only a little sister and Taiwan nonetheless being quite clingy or yandere towards him in a similar vein to the Belarus/Russia pairing.