President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of January 11 with a delegation led by Governor Hiroshi Ogawa of Japan's Fukuoka Prefecture. In addition to extending a welcome to the delegation on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, the president expressed his desire for continued development and expansion of cooperation and interaction between the two sides in a wide variety of areas.
In remarks, the president first expressed his appreciation to Governor Ogawa and Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly Chairman Kunihiro Matsumoto for their efforts and contributions in promoting an array of cooperation and interaction between the prefecture and Taiwan.
The president stated that he visited Fukuoka in August 2001 when he was serving as mayor of Taipei City. He remarked that the prefecture boasts many strengths that are worthy of study by other places. For instance, he said, Fukuoka has adopted advanced methods in environmental protection and the processing of refuse. In addition, it has also established a foreign artists-in-residence program. Meanwhile, the president noted, when he was in Fukuoka the baseball star Sadaharu Oh (王貞治) invited him to throw out the opening pitch for a game at the Fukuoka Dome. The president said he also had the opportunity to witness a performance by the Takarazuka Revue at the renowned Hakataza Theater. Consequently, the president commented, Fukuoka made a deep impression on him as a cradle for culture and arts in Kyushu.
With respect to interaction between Taiwan and Japan in art and culture, the president noted, the Takarazuka Revue will stage a performance in Taiwan in April of this year, and Taiwan's National Palace Museum intends to hold an exhibition of selected works between June and October of next year at national museums in Tokyo and Kyushu, respectively. Furthermore, the Tokyo National Museum plans to hold an exhibition of Japanese artifacts in Taiwan in 2017, he said. This interaction marks a new milestone in cultural and artistic cooperation between the two sides, he stated.
President Ma also mentioned that in October 2010 direct flights commenced between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport. These flights have been quite popular, he said, adding that this route has enabled people to travel back and forth between the two cities in the same day. The president added that in 2011 the two countries signed an open skies agreement that paved the way for a 90% increase in the number of cities served in Japan and Taiwan and a 45% increase in the number of flights. As a result, the number of tourists travelling between Taiwan and Japan hit a new record last year, he said. The president cited statistics from the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications that show that the number of tourist visits from Taiwan to Japan in the first 11 months of last year exceeded 1.44 million, while the number of Japanese tourist visits Taiwan during that period stood at over 1.31 million, both of which were record highs.
The president then turned the topic to economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and Japan. He pointed out that in 2012 Taiwan and Japan signed a Patent Prosecution Highway Memorandum of Understanding, which has helped reduce the time needed to obtain patents. Furthermore, in November of last year, the two sides signed an agreement on mutual recognition of electrical and electronic product inspections, as well as a memorandum of understanding on the Taiwan-Japan Industrial Collaboration Bridging Project. President Ma said that these agreements pave the way for even closer economic and trade ties between Taiwan and Japan. The government is happy to see the timely promotion of such agreements, and hopes that bilateral cooperation and interaction can be expanded further, the president said.
The 17-member delegation led by Governor Ogawa was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Association of East Asian Relations Chairman Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-tien Yang (楊進添), National Security Council Advisor Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進), and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷).