Thirty-two Japanese tourists acted as station master for the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) for one day this week as part of a program to match train stations with their namesakes.
Jointly hosted by the TRA, the Tourism Bureau, the Japan Tourism Agency, as well as other Japanese tourism associations, the event was proposed at a meeting in September last year between Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) and Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ota Akihiro.
Following the meeting, both sides launched a five-month campaign in March to find one-day station masters for 32 train stations in Taiwan, including Tienjhong (田中), Fongtien (豐田), Daciao (大橋) and others.
Many Japanese have the same first or last names as the stations, as the facilities were mostly built during the Japanese colonial era.
The tourists were chosen on Sept. 3 in Japan. They arrived in Taiwan on Monday.
The TRA arranged for each tourist to visit a station that bore their name. Aside from acting as station master, they also visited nearby attractions.
Among the participants were a couple surnamed Okayama — Gangshan (岡山) in Mandarin Chinese. The Tourism Bureau said the couple lives in Okayama Prefecture and their first stop in Taiwan was the train station in Greater Kaohsiung that shares their name.
TRA Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said that many of the participants had never visited Taiwan before and even brought their families with them on the trip.
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