President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of August 7 with high-ranking officials from Japan's Kyushu Economic Forum. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, welcomed the delegation to Taiwan and called for continued strengthening of relations between Taiwan and Japan.
In remarks, President Ma first commented that in anticipation of an exhibition of works of art from the collection of Taiwan's National Palace Museum that will be held at the Kyushu National Museum next year, Kyushu Economic Forum Chairman Susumu Ishihara has led a large delegation of around 100 individuals, including important economic figures and students, on a visit to Taiwan. The trip is aimed at generating excitement in the run-up to the exhibition at the Kyushu National Museum by Taiwan's National Palace Museum. The president specially expressed his appreciation for this gesture by the Forum.
President Ma stated that the upcoming exhibition of items from the National Palace Museum's collection was in part made possible by the passage of the Law Concerning Promotion of Exhibitions of Art Objects from Overseas by Japan's parliament (the Diet) in March 2011. This legislation provides legal protection to the museum in staging an exhibition of artwork from its collection, he said. The president pointed out that in the past the National Palace Museum has held exhibitions of items from its collection in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco, Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. Next year, he noted, the exhibitions in Japan will mark the first time that the museum has held exhibitions in Asia, which is extremely meaningful with respect to relations between the two countries.
President Ma stated that in the over five years since he took office, Taiwan and Japan have decided to recognize the drivers licenses issued by each side, signed the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement and a youth working holiday agreement, and started scheduled flights between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport. Furthermore, Taiwan has opened a representative office in Sapporo, he remarked. The president stated that relations between Taiwan and Japan are now at their best in the past 40 years. He also mentioned that the two countries signed a fisheries agreement on April 10 of this year, which marks a new milestone in bilateral economic and trade relations, as well as fishing affairs.
President Ma mentioned that Taiwan and mainland China in June 2010 signed the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. In September of the following year, Taiwan and Japan signed the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, which facilitates Japanese investment in Taiwan and enables Japanese firms to use Taiwan as a springboard from which to export goods to mainland China, he said. The president expressed hope that the Kyushu Economic Forum will continue to promote cooperation between the two sides on a variety of fronts in the future, thereby further enhancing the bilateral relationship.
The delegation, which was led by Kyushu Economic Forum Chairman Ishihara, included Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly delegates Kunio Kaji, Kunihiko Imoto, Hidetoshi Shiokawa, Tokuji Tomita, and Kunihiro Koike. The group was escorted by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Yea-Ping Shih (史亞平) and Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce Chairman Kenneth C. M. Lo (駱錦明) to the Presidential Office to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General John C. C. Deng (鄧振中).