Japan remains the favorite foreign country and the most desirable travel destination for Taiwanese, far ahead of the US, China and the EU, a survey showed yesterday.
The Interchange Association, Japan, which represents Japan in the absence of bilateral diplomatic relations, yesterday released a survey on Taiwanese perceptions of Japan, the third of its kind since 2008.
Similar to the previous two surveys, most Taiwanese continued to list Japan as their favorite foreign country or region, with 41 percent of respondents choosing Japan, 8 percent opting for the US, 8 percent saying China and 6 percent preferring the EU, while 37 percent offered no opinions.
The survey found that 39 percent of respondents regarded China as the country or region with which Taiwan should have closer relations, followed by Japan with 29 percent of respondents, the US with 15 percent and the EU with 3 percent.
Sixteen percent of respondents did not identify a specific country.
It showed the first six most desirable travel destinations for Taiwanese were Japan, favored by 39 percent of respondents, followed by the EU (32 percent), China (14 percent), the US (5 percent), Southeastern Asian countries (4 percent) and South Korea (3 percent).
As for countries that respondents “have close a connection with,” 75 percent said Japan, an increase of 13 percent from the previous survey, while 53 percent said Taiwan and Japan enjoy cordial relations, up 28 percent from the 2009 survey.
Fifty-four percent of respondents felt Japan was a country worthy of trust, up from 41 percent two years ago, while only 10 percent did not consider Japan trustworthy, down from 12 percent from two years ago, the survey showed.
The devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 last year also affected the willingness of Taiwanese to visit the country.
Among the respondents who said they would rather not visit Japan in the near future in the wake of the disaster, 50 percent were worried about radiation from the Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear power plant’s damaged reactors; 28 percent dropped Japan from their travel plans because of the yen’s appreciation, 12 percent were concerned about possible earthquakes and tsunamis, while 5 percent cited personal factors.
About 66 percent of respondent said that the relationship between Taiwan and Japan had grown closer since the disasters, while only 4 percent said it was less close than before, the survey found.
On issues that could negatively affect Taiwanese-Japanese relations, only 1 percent of respondents were concerned about the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) known as the Sendukus in Japan.
The survey was conducted from Jan. 30 to Feb. 22. It collected 1,009 valid samples.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS