The government has no plans to demand that Tokyo recall Interchange Association Representative Masaki Saito and the Japanese government has said that Saito’s recent comments on Taiwan’s status do not reflect the country’s official stance, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) told a group of lawmakers yesterday.
Another deputy minister of foreign affairs, Andrew Hsia (夏立言), on Friday summoned Saito, the representative of the Japanese de facto embassy, to lodge a protest against comments he made at an academic forum in Chiayi County on Friday when he said Taiwan’s status remains “unresolved.”
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press release said that during the meeting, Saito apologized for his remarks and said his comments were his own opinion and did not represent the view of his government.
REFRAIN
The ministry also said Saito had promised to refrain from making similar comments in the future.
Reporters were not allowed to attend the meeting between Hsia and Saito.
When asked by the Taipei Times for a transcript of the meeting, ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said there was none and that the public “needs to trust the government.”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and independence supporters, however, said Saito had nothing to apologize for because he had merely told the truth.
SUPPORT
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) visited the ministry with seven colleagues yesterday to show their support for Saito.
Chai challenged Lin to an open debate on the issue, as Lin has said it was an indisputable fact that the territory of the Republic of China includes Taiwan, and Interchange Association President Atsushi Hatakenaka has suggested to Taiwan’s representative to Japan that Saito’s comments did not represent that of the Japanese government.
The spokesman said the incident had not affected Taiwan-Japan relations.
This is the second time Taiwan-Japan ties have been tested since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned to power in May last year.
In June last year, Japan apologized to Taiwan after a coast guard patrol vessel sank a Taiwanese fishing boat around the disputed waters off the Diaoyuatai.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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