President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presented former Japanese National Security Secretariat director-general Shigeru Kitamura with the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon in recognition of his contributions to deepening ties between Taiwan and Japan.
Tsai welcomed Kitamura and his family to Taiwan for the ceremony and expressed deep gratitude to him for his profound friendship with the country and long-term dedication to deepening Taiwan-Japan relations.
Kitamura, who was in 2019 appointed head of the National Security Secretariat by then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, was a key driver for the country’s new national security strategy published at the end of last year, she said.
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office Web site
The revised strategy states that “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are crucial to the peace, stability and prosperity of international society.”
Taiwan and Japan are important partners that support each other, Tsai said.
In the past few years, the two sides overcame the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, continued to deepen economic and trade relationships and bolstered industrial cooperation, she said.
Total bilateral trade between Taiwan and Japan and Japanese investment in Taiwan hit record highs last year, she added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at an APEC summit last month, agreeing to foster a closer semiconductor partnership, she said.
Tsai thanked Japan for reiterating the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, adding that Taipei would continue to work with Tokyo to safeguard regional peace and Abe’s vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Kitamura thanked Tsai for conferring the decoration and Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) for helping facilitate the ceremony.
Thanks to the trust of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, Kitamura established communication channels with Taiwan while serving in Japan’s National Police Agency and in intelligence and national security positions in the 1990s, he said.
Joining negotiations on a fisheries agreement between Taiwan and Japan, which was signed in 2013, made him realize the close connection between domestic affairs and foreign relations, he said.
Kitamura also expressed gratitude to the government and Taiwanese for their special feelings toward Abe and for offering condolences after he was assassinated last year.
The world is paying close attention to the presidential elections in Taiwan and the US next year and their effects on the international situation, he said.
As the security environment surrounding Japan and Taiwan is increasingly severe, the two should join hands to enhance deterrence over external threats by sharing diplomatic and defense intelligence and pooling together economic and technological forces, he said.
He vowed to continue pursuing the values of open and free democracy.
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