Bond holders ask government to make Japan pay

The love-hate relationship between Taiwan and its former colonial ruler, Japan, continued yesterday as local holders of Japanese government bonds issued some five decades ago asked the government to help them make Japan reimburse them.

Around 40 holders of Japanese government bonds issued during Taiwan's Japanese colonial rule that ended in 1945 joined a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, urging the foreign ministry to accelerate negotiations with Japan over what they see as an unsettled issue.

Petitioners argued that although the Japanese government, after leaving Taiwan, unilaterally announced that the reimbursement would take place earlier than originally scheduled and prescribed a given period of time when the reimbursement was allowed to take place, the move was largely unknown to local bond holders in Taiwan at the time.

"Since the Japanese government then did not notify Taiwan's government of its decision, how were we supposed to have any clue as to how and when we could get our money back?" said Lee Po-wen (李博文), a holder of Japanese government bonds.

Peter Cheng (鄭博久), director general of the foreign ministry's department of East Asian and Pacific affairs, said he would help arrange a meeting between the bond holders and Taipei's top representative Lo Fu-chuan (羅福全) soon to brainstorm ways to solve the issue.

Lo is scheduled to report on Taipei-Tokyo ties to the foreign and overseas Chinese affairs committee at the Legislative Yuan next Monday.

Cheng said that the foreign ministry will tackle this unsettled issue through government-to-government negotiations, lobbies at Japan's Diet, as well as lobbying through local non-governmental organizations.

Meanwhile, dozens of protesters yesterday voiced their dissatisfaction with the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial visit to a shrine devoted to Japan's war dead, including World War II criminals.

The demonstration first gathered outside Japan's top representative office in Taipei and then moved to the front of the foreign ministry, with demonstrators holding a white-colored banner that said, "Execute Japan's Modern Day War Criminal Junichiro Koizumi."

The foreign ministry on Monday issued a press release commenting on Koizumi's shrine visit on Sunday, saying while Taiwan would not forget the suffering Japan caused during the war, "we must face it with a spirit of tolerance and a forward-looking vision."