President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of September 10 with a delegation from Japan's Liberal Democratic Party Youth Division. In addition to discussing achievements in the areas of economic and trade ties, culture, tourism, and youth exchanges, the president called for continued strengthening of economic and trade cooperation, thereby enhancing the bilateral relationship.
In remarks, President Ma first extended his congratulations to the Liberal Democratic Party for its victory in the House of Councillors elections this past July, which gave the Liberal Democrats a majority in both houses of Japan's parliament (Diet) and should enable the Liberal Democrats to better push their agenda. In addition, the president offered congratulations to Japan on Tokyo's winning the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
President Ma commented that the Youth Division of the Liberal Democratic Party is an important conduit for interaction between the party and Taiwan. It has long been an enthusiastic promoter of relations between Taiwan and Japan, he said, and has achieved much in this role. The president pointed out that Member of the House of Representatives Shinjiro Koizumi, the director of the party's Youth Division, is leading a delegation of nearly 100 members on this trip to Taiwan, including 33 young parliamentarians, 20 local assemblymen, and various officers in the party. President Ma noted that the delegation in the afternoon will meet with members of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, and expressed confidence the meeting would help strengthen mutual understanding.
The president then addressed the current state of relations between the two countries. He mentioned that while the ROC and Japan do not maintain formal diplomatic ties, substantive relations between the two are every bit as strong as between countries that do. President Ma stated that five years ago upon taking office, he immediately designated the relationship between the two as a "special partnership." He noted that the two sides maintain close relations in the spheres of economic and trade ties, culture, tourism, and youth exchanges. Substantive achievements in these areas include the signing of a youth working holiday agreement, the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, and an open skies agreement, as well as Taiwan's establishment of a representative office in Sapporo and the commencement of regularly scheduled flights between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The president also noted that the number of tourist visits between the two nations has risen from 2.5 million five years ago to 2.99 million last year. In addition, in the first seven months of this year, Taiwanese tourist visits to Japan came to 1.36 million, up 51.8% from the same period last year, he said. On the other hand, Japanese tourist arrivals to Taiwan in the first half of this year declined by 660,000 due to depreciation of the Japanese yen, he noted. This has caused an imbalance in the number of tourists from each side visiting the other, the president said, expressing hope that more Japanese will visit Taiwan in the future.
President Ma further stated that in 2011 Japan's parliament passed the Law Concerning Promotion of Exhibitions of Art Objects from Overseas. This has removed concerns that objects from Taiwan's National Palace Museum could face restrictions or be impounded when they are exhibited in Japan, and paves the way for objects from the museum's collection to be displayed in Tokyo and Fukuoka in June and October of next year, respectively. This, the president commented, will mark the first time that objects from the museum have been put on display in another Asian country. At the same time, he said, Japan's Tokyo National Museum intends to hold an exhibition at the National Palace Museum Southern Branch in 2017. President Ma expressed confidence that these cultural exchanges will be historically significant.
The president also mentioned that Taiwan and Japan on April 10 of this year signed a fisheries agreement, thus resolving a 40-year dispute. This accord, he said, is helping to turn the East China Sea into a "sea of peace and cooperation." He added that this agreement has been praised by neighboring nations and the international community, and offers an important model for resolving international disputes via peaceful means.
President Ma recalled that on a visit to Fukuoka in August 2001 he saw a performance of the Takarazuka Revue and watched a game between two Japanese professional baseball teams – the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Saitama Seibu Lions. He was invited by the baseball star Sadaharu Oh (王貞治) to the Fukuoka Dome to throw out the opening pitch at that game, and prior to the game went to nearby Ohori Park to practice his pitching, ultimately delivering a strike. President Ma said he would never forget the experience. The president noted that as also a baseball-lover, Mr. Koizumi is slated to go to the Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium in the evening to throw out the opening pitch. President Ma wished Mr. Koizumi the best on tossing a strike.
Looking ahead, the president expressed hope that Taiwan will be able, just like Japan, to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which would enable the ROC to take part in the move toward regional economic integration.
In addition to Mr. Koizumi, others in the delegation included House of Representatives member Yasuhide Nakayama (the deputy leader of the delegation), and parliamentarians Yutaka Kumagai, Yohei Matsumoto, and Kumamoto Prefecture Assembly delegate Koji Mizoguchi. The group was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Association of East Asian Relations Chairman Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) and Japan's Interchange Association Taipei Office Chief Representative Sumio Tarui to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General John C. C. Deng (鄧振中).