Inviting high-ranking Japanese officials to take Taiwan's new high-speed rail system will be a major part in the Taiwanese government's attempt to promote relations between Taiwan and Japan in the spring, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
James Liao (
He said that in spite of Japanese Prime Minister Shionzo Abe's drive to mend Japan's relations with China, Taiwan had made good progress in ameliorating its own relations with Tokyo.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Liao said that the fact that Taiwanese tourists have been able to enter Japan without a visa since Sept. 26 last year was a good example of how the relationship was evolving.
Liao added that as the Japanese Diet passes revised laws recognizing Taiwanese driver's licenses next spring, Taiwanese tourists will be able to drive in Japan with their Taiwanese driver's license.
Flights between Taipei and Osaka and Nagoya increased since March, Liao said.
Liao said that the government would make the promotion of exchanges between Taiwan and Japan the focus of its policies next year and that the high-speed rail system would provide a means to that end.
Asked whether former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi would be among the honored guests attending the opening ceremony, Liao replied that inviting Japanese political heavyweights to the ceremony had been part of the plan but that MOFA had since reconsidered the matter.
"We have to review this idea. In terms of inviting Mr. Koizumi, the ministry needs to coordinate with other departments -- including the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp," Liao said.
"Regardless, we need to respect Japan's own positions and requirements. But we will keep working in that direction," he added.
Liao added that inviting former high-ranking Japanese officials represented a challenge and out of the previous eight prime ministers, only Yoshiro Mori had ever visited Taiwan.
MOFA spokesman David Wang (王建業) said that as the high speed rail system uses technologies that are similar to those used in Japan's Shinkansen, it made sense for Japanese officials to be invited to attend the ceremonies.
But he added that as a friend of Japan, Taiwan needed to show understanding for how Tokyo might deal with the invitation.
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