President Ma Ying-jeou on the afternoon of January 10 met with Japanese House of Representatives Member Yuriko Koike. The president expressed his appreciation to parliamentarian Koike for her longstanding participation in the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council and efforts to promote ties between the two countries.
The president remarked that upon taking office in 2008, he immediately designated the relationship between Taiwan and Japan as a special partnership. During his term as president the two countries have signed an agreement enabling youth from each nation to visit the other on working holidays. In addition, Taiwan and Japan have also signed a memorandum of understanding on strengthening interaction. He also pointed out that Taiwan has opened a representative office in Sapporo, bilateral fishing negotiations have resumed, and direct flights between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport have commenced. Meanwhile, National Chengchi University has established the Center for Modern Japan Studies. All of these achievements demonstrate that bilateral relations are becoming even closer, he explained.
The president stated that since last year's signing of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, he hopes that Taiwan and Japan can hold discussions on how to further economic cooperation, given that Japan is Taiwan's second largest trading partner and Taiwan is Japan's fourth largest trading counterpart.
President Ma furthermore noted that last year Taiwan nationals made over 1.3 million trips to Japan, while Japanese made over one million visits here. These numbers have returned to levels prior to the financial tsunami, he said. Meanwhile, when Taiwan welcomed the five millionth visitor to Taiwan in November last year, the individual happened to be a woman from Japan named Mizuho Kimura. She was given a prepaid credit card good for a NT$500,000 spending spree here as well as a variety of products unique to Taiwan. The president said he is confident that continued private interaction between the two sides will help to enhance the bilateral relationship.
The president also expressed his hopes that House Member Koike will provide her assistance in pushing through legislation that will promote the exhibition of artistic works from overseas along with a state compensation system to pay for any damage that might occur to borrowed works when on display in Japan. He said that the United States, France, and Germany already have similar laws, but that Japan has yet to pass similar legislation. Once such legislation is passed, Taiwan will immediately arrange for treasures from the National Palace Museum to be displayed in Japan, he remarked.
Ms. Koike was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the afternoon by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ssu-Tsun Shen to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Lee Chia-chin.