A parliamentary delegation from Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan tomorrow and meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other top officials during a four-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.
The delegation, led by Japanese lawmaker Hiroshige Seko, secretary-general of the LDP in the House of Councillors in the Japanese Diet, is to meet with Tsai, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) to discuss bilateral relations, the ministry said in a statement.
In addition to Seko, the delegation consists of 11 lawmakers who were part of the LDP faction led by former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in early July while campaigning in Nara, Japan, the statement said.
The members would pay their respects to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) at a military cemetery in New Taipei City and visit a memorial to Abe in Kaohsiung before departing on Thursday next week, the ministry said.
Both of the former national leaders are regarded by some to have made significant contributions to promoting Taiwan-Japan ties.
The visit would be a testament to the close friendship between Taiwan and Japan, it said.
Taiwan and Japan enjoy “close economic and people-to- people ties,” the statement said, adding that Taipei looks forward to further bilateral cooperation that stems from the visit.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported