Taiwanese residents fighting for respect in Japan protest`We're not Chinese'

Taiwanese living in Japan shouldn't be considered by that country to be citizens of China, members of four pro-independence groups said yesterday.

Nearly 100 demonstrators took to the streets of Taipei yesterday to protest Japan's policy.

They carried banners that said, "Taiwanese nationality belongs to Taiwan, not China."

The protesters took took their complaints to the Interchange Association of Japan and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Presidential Office to put diplomatic pressure on Japan to change its policy.

For decades, identification documents in Japan have referred to Taiwanese immigrants as being residents of China.

To date, Taiwan has overlooked the issue.

"Taiwanese are Taiwanese and Chinese are Chinese," said Wang Hsien-chi (王獻極), a member of the World United Formosans for Independence, who led the protest yesterday.

A representative from the Interchange Association received the demonstrators' petition.

The representative said, however, that the issue should be negotiated between both the governments of Japan and of Taiwan.

Taiwan's de facto embassy in Tokyo yesterday issued a formal protest on the issue to the Tokyo-based Interchange Association.

"The measures adopted by the Japanese government have affected the dignity and human rights of Japan's residents of Taiwan origin," Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), special assistant to Loh Fu-chen (羅福全), Taiwan's top representative to Japan, said in a formal statement.

According to Lai, the statement asked that Japan in official documents such as alien resident certificates refer to Taiwanese immigrants as coming from the Republic of China -- Taiwan's official name.

"If the aforementioned suggestion is not feasible, then Japan should adopt a formula that can show that these people are from Taiwan," the statement said.

Katharine Chang (張小月), spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Taiwan has over the years negotiated with Japan on the issue.

Japan has, however, steadfastly ignored any suggestions made by Taipei, according to Chang.

"Taiwan is not a part of mainland China, so it is necessary to make some distinctions between Japan's residents from Taiwan and those from China," Chang said.

To defend the rights of Taiwanese immigrants in Japan, a petition signature drive began circulating among Taiwanese immigrant associations in that country two weeks ago.

Since then, 103 groups have signed the petition.

Lin Chien-liang (林建良), chairperson of the Association of Taiwanese Residents in Japan (在日台灣同鄉會) and an organizer of the petition drive, accused Taiwan's foreign affairs ministry of giving them the run-around.

"The Japanese government has said they never received a petition from Taiwan's government," Lin said.

"On the other hand the official spokeswoman of Taiwan's foreign affairs ministry said that the ministry is working on the matter," he said.

"Someone must be lying," Lin said.

According to Lin, members of Japan's Taiwanese immigrant associations are planning to seek help from other associations to protest in front of Japan's embassies around the world if the issue continues to go unanswered by Japanese officials.