A delegation of local politicians and legislators from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Kumamoto Prefecture has called for a resumption of direct flights between the prefecture and Taiwan, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said on Wednesday.
The delegates, who are on a four-day trip to Taiwan to boost ties, are hoping that the resumption would enhance trade, culture and travel connections between the two sides, the CAA said in a news release.
Regular flights between Kaohsiung and Kumamoto began in October 2015, but the route was suspended in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CAA said.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
China Airlines operated three flights per week at about 70 percent of capacity, the CAA said.
CAA Director-General Lin Kuo-shien (林國顯) said his agency would help facilitate the resumption of flights between Kaohsiung and Kumamoto, as passenger numbers on other routes between the two nations are recovering rapidly.
There are 571 flights per week between Taiwan and Japan, or 79 percent of the pre-pandemic level, he said.
Japan was among Taiwanese travelers’ favorite destinations, with 4.91 million people flying from Taiwan to Japan in 2019, CAA data showed.
The 11-member delegation, including LDP Deputy Secretary-General Tetsushi Sakamoto, is to return to Japan today.
On Wednesday, the delegation also met with Vice President William Lai (賴清德), who expressed hope that a major semiconductor investment project from Taiwan in the southern Japanese prefecture would pave the way for more industrial cooperation.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co broke ground on a wafer plant in Kumamoto in April last year, with mass production scheduled to start by the end of next year.
The plant would use the chipmaker’s mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer processes, as well as its 12-nanometer and 16-nanometer FinField effect transistor processes.
Lai asked the delegation to support Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
One of the largest free-trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region, the CPTPP was signed in 2018 by 11 nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The UK requested accession to the CPTPP in February 2021, and became the first non-founding state to join the bloc in March after more than two years of negotiations.
Taiwan sent its request to join to the CPTPP Secretariat in New Zealand in September 2021, but the CPTPP Commission has not yet decided whether to start negotiations.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS