Regardless of the outcome of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election next month, the good relations between Taiwan and Japan would continue, Taiwan-Japan Relations Association Secretary-General Chang Jen-joe (張仁久) said yesterday.
Five candidates have announced bids to replace Japanese Prime Minister and party chairman Shigeru Ishiba, who resigned earlier this month. The winner of the race is expected to become Japan’s next prime minister, but the final decision is to be made by the bicameral Japanese Diet.
RACE ON
Photo: Huang Chin-hsuan, Taipei
The candidates are: Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi; Japanese Representative Sanae Takaichi, a former Japanese minister of economy; Japanese Representative Takayuki Kobayashi, a former minister for economic security; Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi; and former Japanese minister of foreign affairs Toshimitsu Motegi.
Reports by some Taiwanese media that some candidates are more pro-China are “not necessarily correct,” Chang said.
Based on his more than three decades of experience as a diplomat in Japan, political figures who have been a member of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union are not necessarily pro-China, he said.
All of the candidates have expressed deep concerns for Taiwan, he said.
Chang said he believes that no matter who wins the race, the nature of Taiwan’s and Japan’s good relations would not change.
POSITIVE STEP
Taiwan’s plans to remove the restrictions on food and agricultural product imports from five Japanese prefectures, Fukushima, Gunma, Chiba, Ibaraki and Tochigi, after a 60-day public comment period are great news for Japan, and it is a meaningful step for bilateral relations, he said.
The special restrictions, which began with a total ban and were gradually loosened, were imposed after a tsunami tore through the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011.
The Food and Drug Administration has conducted radiation tests on more than 263,000 batches of food imports from the area, and none has failed the inspection, leading the agency to remove the remaining restrictions.
Meanwhile, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is tomorrow to lead a delegation of cross-party legislators to Japan for a five-day visit, Chang said.
The delegation is expected to meet with members of the Japanese Diet and others, and visit the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Chang said.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
RSS