President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of July 17 with a delegation led by former Director-General Wakako Hironaka of Japan's Environment Agency (reorganized in 2001 as the Ministry of the Environment). The president welcomed the delegation to Taiwan and briefed them on Taiwan's efforts to protect the environment, conserve energy, and reduce carbon emissions.
In remarks, President Ma noted that since leaving Japan's Environment Agency, Ms. Hironaka has worked with a number of private environmental protection groups in Japan, including Global Environmental Action (GEA), where she now serves as director-general. The president thanked Ms. Hironaka for her role when the GEA helped Taiwan attend a reception held by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
President Ma stated that the Executive Yuan's Environmental Protection Administration and Japan's Ministry of the Environment in September 2006 convened the first Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Environmental Meeting. The agencies have so far held five of these events, and many important achievements have resulted, the president said. In addition, the two sides in 2005 also signed an agreement related to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. This development spurred Japan's Tanaka Precious Metals and Amita Technologies to establish factories in Taiwan for the refining of gold and other precious metals from industrial waste products, he remarked. This highlights that cooperation between the two governments has led to business opportunities for the private sector, which he said he is pleased to see.
The president emphasized that while Taiwan's population of roughly 23 million people accounts for 0.3% of the world's population, its carbon emissions before he took office in 2008 accounted for 1% of the world's total, and ranked Taiwan 18th in the world in carbon output, which is why, after taking office, he made a clear pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 2020 to the level of 2005, and to cut them by 2025 to the level of 2000. He said that the ongoing efforts of the government have yielded results; carbon emissions in 2011 dropped to 0.84% of the world total, and Taiwan's global CO2 emissions ranking fell to 23rd.
In discussing bilateral cooperation in disaster preparedness and relief, President Ma noted that climate change and extreme weather have caused quite a few natural disasters in both nations, which have lent a helping hand to each other. He specially pointed to the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and nuclear disaster that took place three years ago, saying that these events have had a far-ranging impact on Taiwan.
The president stated that Taiwan and Japan have three similarities. First, both are heavily reliant on the import of energy, he said. Second, both are situated on an earthquake belt, although the president noted that Taiwan experiences fewer tsunamis. Third, both have isolated power grids, making it impossible for them to import electricity from other nations. Consequently, he commented, the methods adopted by Japan after the nuclear crisis there have been closely followed by Taiwan.
President Ma further mentioned that the Japanese government in 2012 unveiled the Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment, which advocated the goal of "zero operation of nuclear power plants in the 2030's." Since adopting this strategy, Japan has had two periods in which it has not generated any nuclear power, but the large amounts of imported natural gas needed to fuel traditional power plants caused that nation's trade deficit in 2013 to reach 11.4 trillion yen, he said, which impacted the price of electricity in Japan as well as the lives of the public. In response, the Japanese government on April 11 of this year announced a new Basic Energy Plan, which identifies nuclear power as an important base load power source, he noted. In addition, the Japanese government declared that after strict inspections it will allow the re-commissioning of nuclear power plants. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority is inspecting the No. 1 and No. 2 units at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, and media have recently reported that the Sendai plant could resume operation this autumn, he said, adding that Taiwan is also paying close attention to whether Japan will re-start other nuclear power plants.
Ties between Taiwan and Japan, President Ma noted, have been quite close over the past six years, and are now at their best state in 40 years. The president pointed to tourism between the two nations as one example, stating that Taiwan is the largest source of tourists to Japan. Tourists between the two countries have increased from 2.5 million in 2008 to 3.76 million last year, he said, further expressing confidence that this number will surpass 4 million this year.
Lastly, President Ma mentioned that a number of substantive achievements in economic and trade ties have been seen between the two countries. He cited the signing of the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, the Taiwan-Japan Arrangement for Mutual Cooperation on Electronic Commerce, and the Taiwan-Japan Memorandum of Understanding for the Mutual Co-operation in the Field of Financial Supervision. In addition, Japan's Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Kuni Sato recently stated that Japan welcomes Taiwan's bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Given that Japan is Taiwan's second largest trading partner and an important source of investment, the president said he is confident that the two sides will engage in even closer cooperation to the benefit of the public in both countries.
Also in the delegation were Japanese House of Representatives Members Koichi Yamamoto and Shunichi Suzuki, and Global Environmental Action Executive Director Tsunemi Yasumoto.