President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of September 7 at the Presidential Office with a delegation of Japanese parliamentarians led by House of Councillors Member Katsuhiko Eguchi. During the meeting, the president remarked that he is very optimistic about the development of relations between the ROC and Japan, and called for cooperation in a wider range of fields to the mutual benefit of the people of both nations.
Noting that Mr. Eguchi is leading a delegation of legislators from Japan's Your Party, the president remarked that the Your Party is a fairly new political party that selected Taiwan as the destination for the first overseas trip made by its lawmakers. Councillor Eguchi visited Taiwan earlier this year on May 8 to participate in the ceremonies marking the opening of the Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park in Tainan City, the president said.
President Ma stated that national treasures from the National Palace Museum here have been exhibited in the United States, France, Germany, and Austria over the past decade, where they garnered considerable international attention. He said that the Japanese parliament (the Diet) earlier this year passed legislation that will prevent the impounding of artwork on display in Japan from other countries. This law helps to overcome a hurdle to the exhibition of artwork from the museum in Japan, the president noted, adding that if the museum's artwork is exhibited in Tokyo in the future, it would be the first time anywhere in Asia outside of Taiwan. The National Palace Museum, he said, is currently working closely with the Tokyo National Museum on an exhibit, and many Japanese media organizations have expressed a keen interest in sponsoring the exhibit. The president said he is deeply pleased by these developments.
President Ma also remarked that over the past three-plus years, Taiwan and Japan have signed a youth working holiday agreement, Taiwan has established a representative office in Sapporo, and flights have begun between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The president reiterated that the friendship between Taiwan and Japan is close.
In turning to economic and trade ties, President Ma commented that after the March 11 earthquake in Japan, Taiwan introduced the Bridge Project with the hope of strengthening industrial cooperation with Japan. The president cited one example, saying that a Japanese digital content company discovered that its products were being pirated by mainland Chinese firms. However, Japan and mainland China have not signed an agreement for the protection of intellectual property. After the Japanese firm began cooperating with a Taiwan partner, the Taiwan company requested that mainland authorities take action in accordance with the Cross-Strait Agreement for Cooperation in the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights. This forced the mainland firms to immediately halt their counterfeiting practices, thereby resolving the longstanding problem for the Japanese firm, he said. At the same time, Japan is one of the world's leaders in machine tools, he pointed out. Presently, Japan's machine tool industry is engaging in a number of cooperation projects with Taiwan companies. Cases such as these provide strong evidence that Taiwanese and Japanese firms can cooperate to make further inroads into the mainland market, the president said, adding that this would be beneficial to both sides.
In addition to Councillor Eguchi, the delegation included Councillors Takumi Shibata, Kenji Nakanishi, Kouta Matsuda, and Sukeshiro Terata, and House of Representatives Member Koichi Yamauchi. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進).