Nishikawa Issei, governor of Fukui Prefecture in Japan, said yesterday in Taipei that he hoped to boost tourist arrivals from Taiwan in the prefecture to 60,000 in the near future, up from 6,000 last year.
Fukui Prefecture, known for its high-quality Koshihikari variety of rice (越光米) that is popular with Taiwanese, boasts fresh seafood and hot springs, which Nishikawa said will be to Taiwanese tourists’ liking.
“Last year, we only had 6,000 tourists from Taiwan mainly because of bird flu. I hope that the figure will increase 10-fold in the short term,” Nishikawa told an economic forum on cooperation between Taiwan and Japan.
Located in the middle of Japan’s main island of Honshu, Fukui produces 90 percent of Japan’s glass and provides more than half of the carbon-free energy for the nation with a total of 14 nuclear power plants.
Nishikawa said that Taiwan and Fukui could cooperate on the research and development of renewable energy to boost bilateral trade ties, adding that Taiwan serves as a “satellite” in Asia because of its geographical position.
Asked whether a cross-strait trade pact Taiwan signed with China in June would have any implications for trade between Taiwan and Japan, Nishikawa told the Taipei Times that Japan could capitalize on the pact to tap the Chinese market together with Taiwanese companies.
“I proposed this idea during my visit to the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday [Wednesday],” Nishikawa said, adding that he hoped both sides would discuss more tangible details on such cooperation in the future.
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