Japanese actress Masami Nagasawa is to be the spokesperson for the Tourism Bureau’s campaign to promote travel in Taiwan to Japanese, the bureau announced yesterday, adding that it is targeting female tourists aged 20 to 35.
Nagasawa, one of the actresses in John Woo’s (吳宇森) drama The Crossing, arrived in Taiwan on Friday to shoot a new commercial for the bureau.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, Nagasawa said she was honored to take on the role, adding that she lived in Taipei for five months while shooting the Taiwanese TV drama Chocolat.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
She was impressed by how friendly people were, as she could barely speak Mandarin at that time, she said.
Nagasawa said she has also traveled to Taichung and Tainan and liked both places.
The main reason Nagasawa was offered the position is because she was a lead actress in a Taiwanese TV drama and had lived in Taiwan for some time, Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said.
“We wanted to choose someone who has an understanding of Taiwan,” he said.
From January to August, about 1.2 million Japanese tourists visited Taiwan, Liu said.
“The majority of Japanese tourists have been male, and we want to encourage more women to visit, particularly those aged from 20 to 35. Japanese women in this age group prefer in-depth and localized tour arrangements. They are also very likely to be avid Internet users and often have a say in how a family tour should be planned. In particular, they often want to try things that their idols have done. As Miss Nagasawa is very popular in Japan and has many female followers, we chose her as our tourism spokesperson in Japan,” Liu said.
Regarding the tourism campaign commercial featuring Nagasawa, Liu said its main theme would be “A Colorful Taiwan,” which aims to present the nation’s diversity through images of the nation’s tourist attractions.
The focus of the commercial this year would be very different from the one shot last year, which starred Japanese hearthrob Takuya Kimura, he added.
“When Mr Kimura was invited to shoot the commercial for us last year, Taiwan had experienced negative growth in Japanese tourists from January to August. Therefore, we featured Mr Kimura tasting soup dumplings, mango shaved ice and Taiwanese tea. The purpose of the commercial was to motivate Japanese tourists to come to Taiwan quickly and try the unique food and beverages for themselves,” he said.
Liu said the focus of the commercial this year had changed as the number of Japanese tourists had increased by almost 20 percent year-on-year from January to August.
Bureau statistics showed that Japan has a population of 127 million, but only 24 percent of Japanese have passports.
The bureau has used both Taiwanese and Japanese stars to represent it in Japan, including Taiwanese boy bands F4 and Fahrenheit and Japanese actor and singer Masaharu Fukuyama.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all