Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

At noon on October 10, President Tsai Ing-wen met for lunch at the Presidential Office with a visiting group of Japanese Diet members. On behalf of the government and people of Taiwan, the president warmly welcomed her guests to Taiwan to attend the 2016 National Day celebrations, and expressed hope for continued strengthening of exchanges between Taiwan and Japan as well as enhancement of the bilateral friendship.

In remarks, President Tsai thanked her visitors for taking time out of their busy schedules to take part in the National Day celebrations, and said that they are all among our country's oldest and best friends. Noting that the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council sent another delegation to Taiwan this past May 20 to attend the inauguration ceremony for herself and Vice President Chen Chien-jen, the president said she was happy that they were able to meet once again at the Presidential Office.

President Tsai pointed out that the government attaches great importance to Taiwan-Japan relations. ROC Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), and Association of East Asian Relations Chairman Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) are both very senior politicians, said President Tsai, who expressed confidence that the two countries can further enhance their already strong bilateral exchanges.

President Tsai mentioned that a cross-party Taiwan-Japan parliamentary friendship group in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan headed by Legislative Yuan President Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) is currently the largest foreign affairs-related legislative caucus. Many of our legislators have actively taken part into the group. It is thus clear that Taiwan highly values the bilateral friendship and hopes for more opportunities to cooperate in the future.

President Tsai then turned to the topic of cooperation between Taiwan and Japan. Commenting from the perspective of industry, she noted that Taiwan has a fully developed high-tech supply chain and a deep pool of technical talent that could link up with Japan's advanced R&D firms and powerful brand marketers to develop even more competitive products. On the economic and trade front, the president stated that many Taiwanese and Japanese firms have a strong overseas presence, and said she hopes that Taiwan and Japan can share resources, cooperate with each other, and make further inroads into emerging markets, especially those in the ASEAN region and South Asia, which present excellent potential.

As for tourism and cultural exchanges, President Tsai pointed out that people-to-people contacts between Taiwan and Japan are quite frequent. Noting that Japan is one of the most popular destinations in the world for Taiwanese travelers, she expressed hope that more Japanese tourists will travel to Taiwan to experience our traditional customs and multifaceted culture, and that the bilateral friendship will continue to grow and flourish.

Included in the 40-person delegation were Japanese House of Representatives members Keiji Furuya, Seishiro Eto, Shigeyuki Tomita, and Taimei Yamaguchi, and House of Councillors members Akiko Santo and Shinpei Matsushita.