Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who initiated a “cycle of kindness” in Taiwan-Japan exchanges, is set to retire after a long career. Hsieh is to hand over the baton to former Examination Yuan vice president Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋).
Few Taiwanese politicians and government officials can lay claim to a strong command of Japanese philosophical thinking. Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Hsieh are among the best. The two statesmen studied at the cradle of Japanese philosophy — Kyoto University — where they inherited the teachings and spirit of professor and moral philosopher Kitaro Nishida.
Lee Teng-hui once said of his teacher’s Logos: “Each time we came to a dead-end in our thinking, we could often use Nishida’s philosophy to find a solution.”
Hsieh excelled and studied toward a doctorate in jurisprudence at Kyoto University for 12 years, taking to heart a clear understanding of Nishida’s philosophy of the “inquiry into the good,” becoming an inheritor of the legacy of Lee Teng-hui’s spirit. Following the diplomatic split between Taiwan and Japan decades ago, Lee Teng-hui nurtured bilateral relations. Hsieh launched a “cycle of kindness” to open up people-to-people relations between the two countries, promoting legislative and city diplomacy.
Hsieh carried out several impossible missions, despite being hampered by the lack of official diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Japan. One of his greatest accomplishments was the transfer of Taiwan’s de facto embassy grounds in Tokyo from the private ownership of former Taiwanese naval officer and representative to Japan Ma Chi-chuang (馬紀壯) to the legal foundation behind the embassy, ensuring that the property would belong to the Taiwanese public.
Hsieh has worked tirelessly for 33 years, including his tenure as representative to Japan, to advance Taiwan out of and beyond the mire of unofficial ties. When Taiwan and the world were plunged into the COVID-19 pandemic, he procured vaccines for Taiwan from Japan in just 11 days. He even went to the airport to send off a shipment of 1.24 million vaccine doses, giving a deeply respectful 90° bow in the pouring rain as the plane taxied away.
The Japanese Diet’s pro-Taiwan All-Party Parliamentary Group had 40 percent of Japanese lawmakers as members at its peak. Earlier this year, 31 Japanese lawmakers attended President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration ceremony and related events. The Japan-Taiwan Parliamentary Association, composed of prefectural representatives, has grown at a quick pace. In 2018, 323 Japanese attended the first Taiwan-Japan Summit in Kaohsiung.
Prior to the pandemic, tourism between Taiwan and Japan surpassed 7 million visitors.
Taiwan has become Japan’s top destination for high-school exchanges. A web tying the two nations continues to be woven, all thanks to the bilateral “cycle of kindness.”
Still, the cycle of kindness is more or less an altruistic philosophical brainchild. Its realization must continue. Lee Yi-yang — who was associated with pro-Taiwan magazine Neo-Formosa Weekly, together with former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) — is self-motivated, modest, reserved and genuine, and has Lai’s full faith. He matches well with Japanese tastes and sensibilities. His public service as minister of the interior has attuned him to Taiwanese public sentiments and he is accustomed to politics. He is well-suited to serving as representative to Japan. Under his guidance, the success of Taiwan and Japan’s cycle of kindness should not be far off.
Wang Hui-sheng is chief director of the Kisei Ladies’ and Children’s Hospital in Japan and a founding member of the East Asian Research Institute.
Translated by Tim Smith
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