President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of July 5 with Japan Interchange Association Chairman Mitsuo Ohashi. In addition to expressing his hopes for a successful East Asia Businessmen's Conference Staff Meeting, which Chairman Ohashi is attending, the president also discussed with Chairman Ohashi the concrete progress in Taiwan-Japan relations since he became president.
In remarks, the president said that over the past four-plus years, relations between Taiwan and Japan have seen significant advancements thanks to the joint efforts of the two sides. The president pointed out specific achievements, such as the signing of a youth working holiday agreement between the two countries, the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, and an open skies agreement. President Ma also noted that Taiwan has established a representative office in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and that direct flights have been commenced between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport. Meanwhile, Japan's legislature (Diet) has passed the Law Concerning Promotion of Exhibitions of Art Objects from Overseas, which abolishes barriers to Taiwan's National Palace Museum in holding an exhibition of items from its collection in Japan. Another breakthrough was the announcement last year of Taiwan-Japan Friendship Initiative, which has further helped to solidify bilateral cooperation and forge a stronger foundation for relations between the two sides, the president said.
President Ma furthermore stated that in April of this year, Association of East Asian Relations chairman Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) and Chairman Ohashi signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Patent Prosecution Highway program, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding on the Exchange of Information Related to Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. The signing of these two documents constituted another important concrete step in ties between the two nations, he said.
In discussing economic and trade issues, the president mentioned that Taiwan in the future hopes to be able to join in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Taiwan will actively work to create the conditions to participate in the initiative, he said. It is also working as quickly as possible with mainland China on follow-up negotiations to the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. President Ma said Taiwan also hopes to be able to resume negotiations with the United States on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement soon. He furthermore stated that as Taiwan and Japan are important trade partners of each other, the signing of a free trade agreement would certainly be conducive to boosting the volume of trade between the two countries.
Earlier in the day, Vice President Wu Den-yih met with Chairman Ohashi. During their talks, Vice President Wu stated that Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on July 1 led a delegation on a visit to Japan to examine the state of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck the area on March 11 last year. The vice president said that Japan's economic growth stood at 4.1% in the first quarter of this year, which indicates that Japan is gradually recovering from the disaster, a development he is pleased to see.
Vice President Wu also mentioned that ROC nationals last year made 1.29 million visits to Japan, which marked the first time that the number of Taiwan residents visiting Japan outnumbered that of Japanese nationals visiting Taiwan. This, he said, indicates that the signing of the open skies agreement and the bilateral investment arrangement has helped to foster closer interaction between the two sides. He furthermore expressed his hopes that cooperative relations will continue to strengthen based on this foundation.
The delegation, which included Japan Interchange Association Chairman Ohashi, Japan Interchange Association President Tadashi Imai, Japan Interchange Association Taipei Office Chief Representative Sumio Tarui, and Interchange Association Secretary-General Kenichi Okada, was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Association of East Asian Relations Chairman Liao to meet President Ma and Vice President Wu. Also attending the meeting was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷).