Don Quijote, the biggest discount store in Japan, is opening its first store in Taiwan today.
The three-story Don Don Donki store in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) area, which operates 24 hours a day, has already created 400 jobs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said in a press release.
Many Taiwanese, including Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), consider a trip to Don Quijote an essential stop in Japan.
Photo courtesy of Department of Investment Services, Ministry of Economic Affairs
“I have been to Don Quijote at least 10 times myself,” Huang said yesterday at a news conference announcing the store’s opening. “They are rendering an important service, because we cannot travel outside of Taiwan at the moment.”
“There are a lot of Don Quijote fans in Taipei and by going to the store they can get a ‘mock travel’ experience,” she said.
Huang credited the Invest in Taipei Office (ITO) for assisting Don Quijote in opening its doors in Taiwan amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The ITO and the MOEA were with the company every step of the way, from forming the Taiwanese company to selecting the location,” Huang said. “As a result, we have [today’s] opening and jobs for many Taiwanese workers.”
A media tour through the store yesterday showed that more than 2,000 Japanese snacks will be available, along with fruit and seafood imported from Japan.
Other products for sale include cosmetics and skincare products, groceries, discount items and even adult entertainment products.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the reason Don Quijote decided to open a branch in Taiwan, said Mitsuyoshi Takeuchi, head of the Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau business for Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp, the parent company of the Don Quijote chain.
“In the past Taiwanese travelers would go to Don Quijote in Japan to pick up authentic products; now they can get the products they were used to picking up in Japan in Taiwan any time,” Takeuchi said.
The Taiwanese outlet is to focus on products, such as Japanese snacks, that are not commonly available in Taiwan.
Takeuchi said there is fierce retail competition in Taiwan.
“To compete with Pxmart [全聯實業] and Carrefour, we have to keep innovating with new stores and new services, such as delivery or e-commerce,” he said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS