Japanese Chief Representative to Taiwan Mikio Numata was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday to hear Taiwan’s insistence that he convey to the Japanese government Taiwan’s demands over the issue of Taiwanese women being forced into Japanese military camps as comfort women.
Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) summoned Numata yesterday morning and demanded that Japan make official apologies on the issue, offer reparations for the women who were involved, restore the honor of the women by producing an official declaration and allocate funds to care for the women.
While Taiwan has maintained the same demands throughout the post-war years, the issue has once again received attention after Japan and South Korea reached a landmark agreement on the issue on Dec. 25 last year.
Japan agreed to pay South Korea US$8.3 million to provide care for the women and tendered an apology, an action which both sides agreed was a “final and irreversible resolution” of the issue.
The demands have been relayed to the Japanese government, Numata said.
Representative to Japan Shen Ssu-tsun (沈斯淳) said the office had also relayed the demands to its Japanese counterparts and called for Japan to initiate immediate bilateral talks on the issue.
Taiwan has appointed Lin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達) and Association of East Asian Relations (AEAR) Secretary-General Chang Jen-joe (張仁久) to head the negotiations. Their counterparts are Numata and representative office Secretary-General Takashi Hamada.
Shen would be keeping in close contact with Taipei Office of Japan’s Interchange Association President Tadashi Imai, the ministry said.
Both sides are communicating via their representative offices, with Taiwan’s government promising that it would press Japan for a speedy response on the issue.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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