President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday decorated Motoo Shiina, a member of the Japanese House of Councilors, with the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon in recognition of his efforts to promote Taiwan-Japan ties over the past decades.
Chen said he took great pleasure in decorating Shiina on behalf of the government and people as the Japanese Diet member has contributed much to the crafting of a framework to maintain peace and stability in Asia and to the promotion of substantive Taipei-Tokyo relations.
With far-sightedness and a strong conviction, Chen said, Shiina overcame many difficulties in the 1980s in pushing for consolidation of a US-Japanese defense alliance to help lay a solid foundation for peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region over the past two decades.
Chen went on to say Shiina has spared no efforts to help pave the way for Taiwan to take part in the US-Japanese defense cooperative mechanism, which has in turn helped safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Praising Shiina as a generous and modest man, Chen said, Shiina had declined to receive any decoration during former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Over the years, Chen said Shiina has made remarkable contributions to cross-strait peace and regional security and prosperity through his quiet, selfless efforts.
For his part, Shiina said it's a great honor for him to receive an Taiwanese government decoration.
Despite the absence of official diplomatic ties, he said, substantive Taiwan-Japanese relations have continued to grow through concerted efforts of the quasi-official Japanese Interchange Association (JIA) and Taiwan's Association of East Asian Relations.
While US-Japan defense cooperation is growing steadily, Shiina said he is hopeful that Taiwan can expand its participation within this mechanism and that triangular Taipei-Tokyo-Washington relations will be further upgraded on the current basis.
Lee and his wife attended the decoration ceremony. It was the first time since he finished his presidency in May 2000 that Lee has made a visit to the Presidential Office.
Also present at the occasion was Katsuhisa Uchida, director of the JIA Taipei Office, which represents Japanese interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties.
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