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 magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan has activated backup communications for its northernmost territory, the remote and strategically located island of Dongyin (東引), after poor weather conditions apparently shifted the wreckage of a ship onto an undersea cable causing it to break. The vulnerability of undersea communication cables linking Taiwan with its outlying islands has been a persistent cause of concern for Taipei, whose government has on several occasions blamed Chinese ships for intentionally causing damage. Dongyin, home to about 1,500 people, sits in a strategic position at the top of the Taiwan Strait and the island has a heavy military presence. It does not have an
RSS