Taiwanese have had misgivings about the safety of Japanese food since the nuclear disaster that followed the massive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and Japan should have more patience in dealing with the issue, Association of East Asian Relations chairman Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) said.
Lee said Taiwan is Japan’s third-largest export market for its agricultural products. For example, 90 percent of Aomori Prefecture’s apple exports go to Taiwan, he said.
Lee said it was only natural for people to be concerned about food safety, and if doubts exist about Japanese food, Japan should go out of its way to put Taiwanese at ease.
“The matter has nothing to do with politics,” Lee said.
Japan has expressed its displeasure with a move by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to tighten regulations on Japanese food imports after products from five nuclear-affected prefectures — Gunma, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Chiba — were found on the Taiwanese market last month with faked labels.
The new measures, requested by the legislature, are to require Japanese food products to show their specific places of origin rather than just the country of origin, and some products would also require a radiation inspection certificate.
Lee was responding to remarks by a member of the Japanese Diet from Gunma Prefecture, who said in a meeting on Friday that Taiwan’s tougher stance on food imports was a political move.
“The patience of Gunma has its limits, and it will soon explode,” Hiroyoshi Sasakawa said, while another Japanese lawmaker said that “it is time for the Japanese government to take the case to the WTO.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration said it attaches great importance to the issue and plans to send a delegation headed by his special adviser to Taipei on Thursday.
One Liberal Democratic Party official said that the visit had been previously scheduled, but the issue of Taiwan tightening regulations on imported Japanese food was added to the agenda after the dispute emerged.
Members of the Japanese Diet are all best friends of Taiwan, and “everything can be discussed between good friends,” the party official said.
UNDER WATCH: Taiwan will have to establish a standardized nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus and monitor its spread, the CDC said The Langya henipavirus, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, has been discovered in China, with 35 human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, adding that the nation would establish a nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus. A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday said that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness was identified in China. The study said an investigation identified 35 patients with acute infection of the Langya henipavirus in China’s Shandong
MISSILE PATHS: Certain information on the Chinese missile fire was not disclosed to maintain secrecy over military intelligence-gathering capabilities, the MND said Military experts yesterday speculated on the implication of the government’s tight-lipped response and the lack of air-raid sirens during the first day of China’s military drills the previous day. On Thursday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched 11 Dongfeng-series ballistic missiles into waters north, east and south of Taiwan, a day after US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s departure from the country, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. The Japanese Ministry of Defense said that China fired nine missiles toward Taiwan, including four that flew over Taiwan proper. However, China’s exhibition of force failed to terrorize the local populace, because
If any war were to break out between the US and China, one trigger might be the increasingly frequent fighter jet encounters near Taiwan. Almost every day, Taiwanese fighter pilots hop in their US-made F-16s to intercept Chinese warplanes screaming past their territory. The encounters probe the nation’s defenses and force the pilots on both sides to avoid mistakes that could lead to a crisis that spins out of control. “I didn’t know whether they would fire at me,” said retired colonel Mountain Wang, recounting a tense five-minute confrontation he had with Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jets more than a decade
INCREASINGLY EMBOLDENED: China can no longer be dismissed as inexperienced, demonstrating an ability to coordinate land and sea missile systems, an expert said Beijing’s largest-ever exercises around Taiwan have offered essential clues into its plans for a grueling blockade in the event of an attack on Taiwan, and revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military, experts said. The visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi — second in line to the presidency — sparked outrage from Beijing, which launched vast military maneuvers around the nation, even at the risk of partially exposing its plans to the US and its Asian allies. Mobilizing fighter planes, helicopters and warships, the drills aim to simulate a blockade of Taiwan and include practicing an “attack on
RSS