The General Chamber of Commerce and Buzen City today opened a new Taiwanese business service center in the southern Japanese city.
The center is part of efforts to help Taiwanese companies expand into the Japanese market, offering assistance in administrative matters such as taxation, banking services, visa applications and more, organizers said.
Japan is Taiwan’s third-largest trading partner, with total bilateral trade in 2023 reaching US$75.77 billion, along with US$214 million in investment in Japan by Taiwan and US$620 million in investment in Taiwan by Japan, Ministry of Economic Affairs data show.
Photo courtesy of the Japan International Exchange Association
The center would be Japan’s first one-stop platform specifically for Taiwanese businesses, Buzen City Mayor Motohide Goto told the inaugural ceremony, adding that the city government is honored to provide support and policy resources.
Buzen City, located in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture, is a 30-minute drive from the city of Kitakyushu.
Taiwan’s Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) is setting up a manufacturing facility in Kitakyushu, expanding Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain to the area, Goto said.
Buzen’s geographic and industrial advantages would make the city a good choice for related firms looking to expand in the area, he added.
This new center complements Taiwan’s trade and investment center that the Ministry of Economic Affairs is currently setting up in nearby Fukuoka, said Chen Ming-chun (陳銘俊), head of the Fukuoka Branch of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka.
One is the result of cooperation between private capital and local governments, while the other is driven by central government policy, Chen said.
The goal for both centers is to provide more complete support for Taiwanese companies seeking to enter the Japanese market and to combine to provide greater benefits than they would individually, Chen added.
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