President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of December 21 with the Japanese delegation to the 2010 Taiwan-Japan Forum in Taipei, and expressed his hopes that the ROC and Japan will continue to maintain their friendly and cooperative relationship, creating a bedrock of peace and security in East Asia.
The president stated that while the ROC and Japan do not have formal diplomatic relations, Japan is Taiwan's second largest trading partner while Taiwan is Japan's fourth largest, and bilateral trade and investment ties continue to grow briskly. In particular, the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement between Taiwan and mainland China this year has spurred interest among many Japanese companies in forming strategic alliances with Taiwan so as to jointly develop the mainland China market and generate cooperative business opportunities. The president said that the trade and economic relationship between Taiwan and Japan has become even closer thanks to the improvement in cross-strait relations.
President Ma noted that Japan on December 17 passed the National Defense Program Guidelines. As Japan is a major power in East Asia, the president said that close attention has been paid to this development. The ROC is a peace-loving nation and has consistently advocated the resolution of regional conflicts through peaceful means so as to generate peace and prosperity throughout East Asia. President Ma reiterated his hopes for a continued friendly and cooperative relationship between the two countries, which he said will form a foundation for peace and stability in East Asia.
The president remarked that relations between the ROC and Japan have been progressing significantly over the past year. Taiwan established a representative office in Sapporo, Hokkaido in December of last year, a memorandum of understanding on strengthening interaction between Taiwan and Japan was passed in April of this year, and direct flights between Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Taipei's Songshan Airport commenced on October 31. Meanwhile, the founding of the Center for Modern Japan Studies will help the people of Taiwan better understand Japan, and shows that serious efforts are being made to promote bilateral ties. President Ma also expressed his hopes that the Japanese parliament, the Diet, will soon pass legislation to prevent impounding by a third party of museum items on display in Japan, thereby guaranteeing the safety of National Palace Museum artworks when on exhibit there.
The president stated that considerable growth has been seen this year in the volume of tourist travel between Japan and Taiwan. He mentioned that the five millionth visitor to Taiwan this year was a lady from Japan, who received an NT$500,000 gift debit card and a gift of 500 unique items from Taiwan. The president expressed his confidence that the continued interaction among people of both sides will help to further enhance bilateral relations.
The Japanese delegation, led by Yoshio Okawara, was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Cross-Strait Interflow Prospect Foundation Chairman Louis W.H. Tzen to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu.