China wants to invite Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife Crown Princess Masako to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a Japanese newspaper said yesterday.
The Japanese government confirmed that talks were underway for Japanese dignitaries to attend the Olympics but declined to comment further.
The move would be the latest in a series of efforts by the neighbors to improve bilateral ties, beset by disagreements over wartime history, territorial disputes and competition for natural resources.
Chinese officials have already begun making informal contacts with the Japanese government about the invitation, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
If the visit comes about, it will be the first official trip to China by members of Japan's imperial family since Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited in 1992, the Yomiuri said.
The Japanese government has reacted cautiously to the approaches, the paper said.
"We have not received any formal invitation from the Chinese government to the Japanese government," chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said of the report. "But I have heard that various talks are being held about the attendance of VIPs."
"It is not at a stage where the Japanese government can comment," he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe traveled to Beijing on his first foreign trip after taking office last September and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) is due to pay a return trip to Tokyo in April.
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
‘IRRESPONSIBLE’: Beijing’s constant disruption of the ‘status quo’ in the Taiwan Strait has damaged peace, stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region, MOFA said The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China’s launch of another military drill around Taiwan, saying such actions are a “unilateral provocation” that destabilizes regional peace and stability. China should immediately stop the irresponsible and provocative actions, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said, after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) yesterday announced the start of a new round of joint exercises around Taiwan by the army, navy and air force, which it said were approaching “from different directions.” Code-named “Justice Mission 2025,” the exercises would be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and in areas north, southwest, southeast and east of Taiwan
RSS