■ diplomacy
JIA names new boss
The Japanese Interchange Association (JIA) has decided to appoint Masaki Saito, a former Japanese ambassador to New Zealand, to serve as Japan’s chief representative in Taiwan, the Tokyo Shimbun reported yesterday. Saito will replace Tadashi Ikeda as the head of the association’s Taipei Office, Japan’s de facto embassy, the report said. Saito, 64, a career diplomat who specializes in Chinese affairs, has served as minister at the Japanese embassy in China and ambassador to Cambodia. He joined Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1966. Saito will be the second member of the ministry’s “China School” — an institute dedicated to the study and understanding of Chinese issues — to serve as the nation’s top representative in Taiwan. The first was Ikeda, who took up his post in Taipei in 2005.
■ health
Market goes smoke-free
Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (�?]) promoted the nation’s first non-smoking traditional market on Saturday as the city marked World No Tobacco Day, describing it as a new milestone in his campaign to turn Tainan into a smoking-free city. The city has a non-smoking road near National Cheng Kung University, plus 18 parks, one tourist area in Anping and four historical sites where smoking is not allowed, Hsu said. He said the ban might generate opposition, but a majority of the market’s visitors are women and that everyone visiting the market deserves not to be exposed to second-hand smoke. The ban should not affect business because the market has a good management system and its vendors were good businesspeople, he said. Hsu urged local residents to cooperate with the smoking bans.
■ transportation
MRT fares unchanged
Kaohsiung City will not follow Taipei’s lead in temporarily discounting MRT fares to encourage more people to use public transport. The Kaohsiung MRT fare is NT$12 per ride, regardless of the distance traveled and passengers are entitled to a free bus transfer. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that Taipei’s MRT system was completely funded by the government, but Kaohsiung’s system was built using the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model, so the city government could not unilaterally decide to extend the preferential fares because this would affect the Kaohsiung Rapid Transport Corp’s revenues. She did promise, however, to provide more incentives to encourage the public to use public transportation. On Friday, the Taipei City Government announced that MRT fares for EasyCards users would be reduced by an additional 5 percent between yesterday and Aug. 31, bringing the total Easy Card discount to 25 percent for the summer.
■ earthquakes
Quake hits near channel
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale occurred off the southeast coast yesterday, but there were no reports of any casualties. The Central Weather Bureau said the magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 9:57am and had been felt faintly in Taiwan. The bureau said that the epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean about 560km southeast of Taipei, close to the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan and the Philippines. The earthquake’s epicenter was located as deep as 46km below the surface of the ocean.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
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