Former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso and his family arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a four-day private visit.
Upon his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Aso was greeted by Taiwanese Representative to Japan John Feng (馮寄台) and Japanese Representative to Taiwan Tadashi Imai.
Aso was seen chatting animatedly with Feng, but did not respond to press inquiries about his itinerary in Taiwan, nor did he make any public speeches.
He shook hands with some Japanese visitors at the airport.
Accompanied by his wife, daughter and personal aides, Aso left the airport for Taipei shortly after his arrival.
A report carried in the Japanese Sankei Shimbun yesterday said Aso was visiting Taiwan at the invitation of Taiwanese friends.
The report quoted Aso as having told the Japanese Diet that during his visit he would look at political developments in Taiwan.
This is Aso’s first trip to Taiwan since he stepped down as prime minister in September after his party lost a parliamentary election to the Democratic Party of Japan in August.
Aso, who served as Japan's prime minister from September 2008 through September last year, last visited Taiwan in April 2003, in his capacity as head of the then-ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy coordination council.
During that visit, he attended a seminar with politicians from Taiwan's then-ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Only two other retired Japanese prime ministers have ever visited Taiwan — the late Take Fukuda in March 1992 and Yoshiro Mori in December 2003 and again in November 2006.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS