President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of May 17 with Keiji Furuya, a member of Japan's House of Representatives. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a cordial welcome to Mr. Furuya on his visit.
During discussions, President Ma commented that Japan is Taiwan's second largest trading partner and is also the second most popular destination among Taiwan tourists travelling overseas, while Taiwan is Japan's fourth largest trading partner, so the two sides enjoy close and frequent interaction. President Ma stated that upon learning of the huge earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, people in Taiwan expressed deep concern and began donating funds to the relief effort. To date, over NT$5.9 billion worth of donations have been made, which is the largest amount ever raised here. The president said that he participated in a telethon on March 19 and NT$700 million was raised that evening alone.
The president also said that Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng on April 20 led a delegation from Taiwan to Japan to express Taiwan's condolences and concern. The same day, the government here announced that it was downgrading its travel advisory from "red" to "gray" for people visiting Hokkaido. And in response to a plea by Hokkaido's governor to remove barriers that were causing tourists to shy away from the area, Legislative Yuan President Wang again visited Hokkaido on May 12, which he hoped would bring Taiwanese tourists back to the island. The president noted that House of Representatives members Seishiro Eto and Yuriko Koike recently made visits to Taiwan to express their appreciation for Taiwan's assistance in the wake of the disaster, and Parliamentarian Koike presented President Ma an engraved crystal plaque as a token of the brotherly ties between the two countries.
In discussing bilateral relations, President Ma said that the government's promotion of the "special partnership between Taiwan and Japan" has yielded many results, including the signing of a youth working holiday agreement, the opening of a Taiwan representative office in Sapporo, and the startup of direct flights between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport. In addition, Japan's House of Representatives recently passed legislation to prevent the impounding of foreign art objects on display in Japan, which will pave the way for Taiwan's National Palace Museum to display its treasures in Japan. All of these achievements are helping to forge even greater interaction and cooperation between the two countries and lead to closer relations, he said.
President Ma also mentioned that the Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park was inaugurated at the Wushantou Reservoir in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City on May 8. Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council Secretary-General Takao Fujii, and 24 other members of Japan's Diet came to Taiwan to participate in the ceremonies. The president expressed his belief that one needs to take a balanced view of the 50-year period (1895-1945) of Japanese colonial rule here, saying that better understanding this history will have a positive effect on the bilateral relationship. President Ma also remarked that it is wrong to accuse him of being anti-Japanese. In fact, he said he is a friend of Japan and that the ROC government is willing to strengthen the relationship between the two nations.
Parliamentarian Furuya was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Association of East Asian Relations Secretary-General Huang Ming-lung (黃明朗)and Japan Interchange Association Taipei Office Chief Representative Tadashi Imai to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進).