China’s military provocations around Taiwan “have caused risks to the peace and safety of not only Taiwan but also to all of East Asia,” a Japanese lawmaker yesterday wrote on Twitter.
Japan-Republic of China Diet Members’ Consultative Council Chairman Keiji Furuya made the comment prior to arriving in Taipei for a three-day visit.
In a meeting with Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday, Furuya, a senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, quoted late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who said that “a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-US alliance,” and called on like-minded democratic allies to join together in facing global and regional challenges.
Photo copied by Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The council, comprising more than 260 Japanese lawmakers from various political parties, supports Taiwan’s bid to join the Tokyo-led trade bloc the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said.
Thanking Taiwan for earlier this year partially lifting an 11-year ban on food products from five Japanese prefectures that was implemented after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, Furuya urged Taipei to eliminate its remaining restrictions on food products implemented after the 2011 incident.
Furuya also asked about the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) plan to purchase new trains.
THSRC started to negotiate a new purchase from a Japanese consortium in 2017, but the deal was abandoned twice in 2020 and last year, reportedly due to unreasonable pricing.
Furuya said that Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains boast the world’s best safety, precision and technology, adding that he hopes a deal with THSRC can be closed.
Furuya and the council’s secretary-general Minoru Kihara are to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) today.
The Japanese lawmakers are also likely to visit the grave of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to pay their respects to Lee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
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