Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

President Tsai Ing-wen met on the afternoon of November 29 with a delegation led by Japan Interchange Association Chairman Mitsuo Ohashi. The president welcomed Chairman Ohashi to Taiwan to participate in the annual Taiwan-Japan Economic and Trade Meeting, and thanked Chairman Ohashi for his unremitting efforts to promote Taiwan-Japan relations.

In remarks, President Tsai stated that the firm friendship between Taiwan and Japan is beneficial to bilateral economic and trade ties. She added that the Taiwan-Japan Economic and Trade Meeting is an important platform, so she hopes the two sides can take advantage of it to push for consensus on the need for Taiwan and Japan to sign an economic partnership agreement and generate more opportunities for cooperation in industry and commerce.

President Tsai said that hopefully Taiwan and Japan can take advantage of the foundation laid by the Taiwan-Japan Economic and Trade Meeting to establish comprehensive exchanges, dialogues, and interactions to develop a closer and more robust partnership so that the two sides can work together to contribute to regional peace, stability, and prosperity.

Turning to the topic of bilateral tourism exchanges, President Tsai pointed out that two-way tourist arrivals hit an all-time high in 2015, topping 5 million for the first time. This breakthrough shows that interactions between the two countries are very close. And in order to attract more Japanese tourists to Taiwan, the Tourism Bureau invited Masami Nagasawa, a well-known Japanese actress, to film a short promotional video in Taiwan. We hope that more Japanese tourists will come to Taiwan, and that two-way exchanges and tourism will continue to break records.

President Tsai wrapped up her remarks by thanking Japan for its thoughtful arrangements that enabled a meeting during the recent 2016 APEC summit between Leader's Representative James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Chairman Ohashi and the delegation were ushered to the Presidential Office by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Leo Chen-jan Lee (李澄然) to meet President Tsai. Also present at the meeting were National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) as well as Chairman Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and Secretary-General Tsai Ming-yaw (蔡明耀) of the Association of East Asian Relations.