YOU Si-kun: Grateful for Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council for its longstanding efforts in deepening cordial relations between Taiwan and Japan.
Accompanied by Vice President Tsai Chih-chang, Secretary Lin Jih-jia, Consultant Chou Ya-shu, and cross-party legislators, President You attended the reception in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council and welcome dinner banquet in honor of the delegation led by Chirman Keiji Furuya hosted by the Legislative Yuan in the evening of October 9 at the Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel. Vice President Lai Ching-te, Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Chief Representative Izumi Hiroyasu, Director Yu Yamada, Director Takahira Asuka and Taiwan-Japan Relations Association Secretary General Fan Chen-kuo were also present.
Led by Chairman Keiji Furuya, the delegation arrived in the Legislative Yuan at 4 p.m. and had a group photo in front of the chamber with President You Si-kun, Vice President Tsai Chi-chang, Legislators Hsieh Yi-fong, Chiu Cheng-yuan, Chiu Tai-yuan, Chen Ou-po, Lin Chu-yin, Wu Yu-chin, Tang Hui-jane, and Lim, Tshiong-tso. After the group photo, the delegation had a tour of the chamber guided by the staffer. Legislators Ho, Mark Chih-wei, Chiu Tai-yuan, Chen Ou-po and Tsai Shih-ying accompanied and were engaged actively with the delegation and had group photos. Many of the visiting delegation members were excited to visit the chamber and had photos and waved to greet the media friends on the second floor. All of them were impressed by the amplification function with the speaker design in the internal structure. After the tour, delegation members and legislators proceed to Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel to attend the reception and dinner banquet.
The reception began after Vice President Lai arrived with pictures of historical moments of mutual donation of vaccines and face masks, distant look of Japan’s westernmost point of Yonaguni Island from Suao, and National Day parade, demonstrating the solid relations between Taiwan and Japan followed by wonderful sand painting to show the close and cordial relations. The prelude performance won warm rounds of applause. Then President You Si-kun delivered his welcome remarks. He stated that he was delighted to meet with Chairman Furuya and the delegation members. He extended his heartfelt welcome to the delegation. On behalf of Taiwan’s congress, he sincerely congratulated the 50th anniversary of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council.
President You stated that Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council founded for half a century with nearly 300 members, accounting for 40% of the total number of Japanese parliamentarians and has profound influence in Japan’s political community. Over the past 50 years, it has been one of the most important strengths supporting Taiwan. Under the leadership of Chairman Furuya, the Council has actively promoted exchanges and cooperation between Taiwan and Japan in recent years to make bilateral relations closer. As Chairman Furuya stated Taiwan and Japan are the alliance of heartfelt friendship.
President You recalled that on the same day of last year, he accompanied the delegation led by Chairman Furuya to his hometown Yilan County to have a distant look at Japan’s westernmost point of Yonaguni Island, which is only 111 away from Taiwan. They made a promise to find an appropriate time to meet in Yonaguni Island. President You was very touched that Chairman Furuya kept and realized his promise on July 4 this year. Although it was a FAM trip to explore the possibility of new route for tourism. This trip also made the public have deep understanding about the interdependent relations between Taiwan and Japan.
President then shared his seven-word poem with the guests. “A hundred kilometers eastward from Suao, Taiwan can be seen westward from Yonaguni. Suao and Yonaguni enjoy brotherhood relations. They will promote transport and tourism development together.” He hoped that with the joint efforts of both sides, the direct ferry service will be realized soon. He pointed out that there more than 30 groups expressed the interest to visit Yonaguni Island. One thousand hoped that they could make the trip in late May next year. President You hoped that the Japanese government would have favorable consideration for this proposal to create another milestone for bilateral tourism industry. He pointed out that if the direct ferry service is provided, he suggested that a route from Tokyo to Taipei to Suao and take the ferry from Suao to Yonaguni Island and to take flight to Tokyo. Another route can be from Tokyo to Okinawa and Yonaguni Island to take the ferry to Suao to visit Taiwan to go back to Tokyo by flight.
President You mentioned that in the second half year of 2018, before his abdication of his throne, the former Japanese Emperor Akihito paid a special visit to Japan’s westernmost point of Yonaguni Island. When Mr. Kishi Nobuo served as former Minister of Defense, he also visited the island. He believed that among 100 million Japanese population, many of them must want to visit this westernmost place. This route will make two peoples feel how close Taiwan and Japan are. Their relations are indeed as close as the lip and teeth. President You concluded his remarks to show sincere gratitude to the Council for its longstanding support to Taiwan. He wished Taiwan and Japan everlasting relations and all distinguished guests good health and every success.
In his remarks, Chairman Furuya stated that since Taiwan and Japan do not have diplomatic ties, therefore, parliamentary friendship group play an extremely important role. He thanked President You for hosting the dinner banquet to the 50th anniversary of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council. He was delighted that Vice President Lai found time to attend the reception. He pointed out that Taiwan and Japan need to maintain mutual trust. This is the consensus of both sides. In three months, Taiwan is going to have presidential and legislative elections. He knew that political parties had been competitive with each other. Therefore, he was especially pleased to see so many legislators from different parties. He extended a sincere appreciation to them for their presence.
Chairman Furuya continued to state that when he had a distant look at Taiwan from Yonaguni Island in July this year with President You, even the vision was blurred due to bad weather, he was convinced that because of the strong ties between Taiwan and Japan, he felt that he saw a clear picture of Taiwan with his heart. He stated that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed that “A contingency of Taiwan is a contingency of Japan.” This is true, but Japan does not want to see this happen. The entire world needs to cooperate to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Japan wants to show the world its determination to support Taiwan. Accordingly, the delegation will join the National Day parade the next day. There were nearly 50 Council members participating. Since the number greatly increased, so the size of the banner with the words of “Taiwan-Japan Friendship” is twice larger than previous year, fully demonstrating the relations are further enhanced.
Chairman Furuya stressed that both Taiwan and Japan had witnessed the saying of “Friends in need are true friends indeed.” Over the past few decades. When Taichung was hit with mega earthquake (September 21 earthquake), Japan provided the most advanced search and rescue equipment immediately. When Taiwan pineapples were banned by China, Japan immediately purchased a large quantity of pineapples, which could be seen in the supermarket chains in his hometown. On the other hand, he thanked Taiwan for providing Japan with face masks during the pandemic. He was convinced that the mutual trust would remain unchanged and will be further enhanced. This is the major responsibility of the Council. He also stated that Taiwan’s elections next year will prove itself to the world its democratic vitality. He concluded his remarks by wishing all distinguished guests enjoy their time in the evening.
When Vice President Lai as invited to deliver his speech, he stated that this year marks the 50th anniversary of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council. On behalf of President Tsai and the people of Taiwan, he wanted to express warm welcome to the Japanese delegation to attend the National Day celebrations. In particular, the international situation has become increasingly complicated with the increasing tension in Indo-Pacific region. It was especially significant for Japanese delegation to express their support to Taiwan with concrete actions. He continued to state that there were three characteristics of Japan’s congratulatory delegation this year. First, it marked the largest delegation with nearly 50 parliamentarians. Second, the congratulatory delegation was comprised of cross-party parliamentarians, fully expressing Japan’s strong support of both ruling and opposition parties to Taiwan. Third, this year marked the 50th anniversary of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council. Japan’s cross-party parliamentarians and Taiwan’s legislators would jointly participate in the National Day parade the next day to demonstrate to the world the friendly ties between Taiwan and Japan to serve as a good example for external relations. Vice President Lai invited legislators to give a warm round of applause for this sincere friendship.
Vice President Lai thanked the previous chairmen and current chairman of the Council over the past 50 years for their efforts. Although Taiwan and Japan do not have diplomatic ties, the two peoples had established solid friendship with the hard work of the Council. For example, Taiwan and Japan always care for each other whenever there are natural disasters, such as earthquakes and typhoons. When the pandemic was tense, Japan generously donated 4.2 million vaccine doses to Taiwan to help Taiwan face the daunting challenges. He also learned that there are intermarriages between Taiwan and member parliamentarians of the Council. So it is fitting to say that the relations between Taiwan and Japan are like families.
Vice President Lai officially introduced President You to the distinguished guests by stressing that President You was the presiding chairman of the meeting of founding Democratic Progressive Party during the Martial Law era. He risked the possibility to be arrested, imprisoned and killed to break the ban on political parties with many forebears to establish democratic politics and to strive for democracy that led to the abolishment of the world’s longest era of the rule of martial law. Followed by the comprehensive legislative election, direct presidential election, Taiwan can finally enjoy democracy, progress and economic prosperity. Vice President asked the distinguished guests to give President You a warm round of applause for his sacrifice and contributions.
Vice President Lai continued to state that he will continue to fight for Taiwan’s democracy and peace and to continue President Tsai’s four commitments that we will renew our commitment to a free and democratic constitutional system, that the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China should not be subordinate to each other, our commitment to resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty, and our commitment that the future of the Republic of China (Taiwan) must be decided in accordance with the will of the 23 million of Taiwanese people. On the basis of this shared foundation, four action plans are proposed, including enhancing national defense and self-defense capabilities to demonstrate to the international community out determination to protect our country. Strengthening economic development and security will enable to Taiwan to be a key player in the international community as the global supply chain is restructured. Taiwan will stand shoulder to shoulder with the global democratic camp to exercise influence to be ready for possible war but at the same time to prevent a war from happening to safeguard peace. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait can promote exchanges and cooperation to promote the wellbeing of the two peoples and to promote peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region with the conditions of equality and respect.
Vice President underscored that in the future peace will be the lighthouse and democracy and will the guiding compass. Even the Indo-Pacific regional situation is not promising, he will continue to lead Taiwan to move steadily forward. He hoped that with the joint efforts of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Member’s Consultative Council and Taiwan-Japan Exchange Association, we will further deepen comprehensive cooperation. First, he hoped that the tourism between Taiwan and Japan can return to the scale before the pandemic with nearly six million visits paid by Taiwan’s tourists and two million visits paid by Japan’s tourists every year. After the pandemic, tourism of both Taiwan and Japan has not fully recovered. Second, Taiwan and Japan’s economic and trade and industrial cooperation should be further strengthened. Taiwan marks Japan’s fourth largest trading country, while Japan is Taiwan’s third largest country. In 2022, bilateral trade reached US$88.2 billion. It is hoped that the number will exceed US$100 billion soon. Taking semiconductor as an example, industrial cooperation will have a win-win situation and can be complementary to each other. Taiwan has advantage in manufacturing, while Japan in raw material, equipment and know-how. It is hoped that both sides strengthen cooperation to promote further prosperity to benefit the entire world. Third, Taiwan and Jaapn should enhance cooperation to promote peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. He especially mentioned about after Russian-Ukraine War and the sudden attack launched by Hamas against Israel yesterday (October 8), peace and stability in Indo-Pacific region will attract more attention of the international community. Vice President Lai concluded his remarks by stating that although the US is still the most important player in maintaining global peace, Taiwan is situated in the first island chain and is willing to shoulder the responsibility to maintain peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region. He also stressed that “A contingency of Japan is a contingency of Taiwan.” Taiwan and Japan need to cooperate with each other to protect regional stability and peace. Vice President Lai wished all guests a very pleasant evening.
Vice President Lie along with Legislative Yuan President You, Vice President Tsai, Legislator Hsieh Yi-fong, Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan, Secretary General Lin Jih-jia, Chairman Furuya and distinguished guests to be on the stage to cut the cake and posed for photos to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Japan-R.O.C. Diet Members’ Consultative Council. Chairman Furuya presented a gift of a portrait of Vice President Lai. The painting was made by Japan’s member of House of Councillors Ken Akamatsu, which was elected with the highest ballot last year.
President You presented a porcelain plate of Yu Shan or Jade Mountain symbolizing the friendship between Taiwan and Japan to Chairman Keiji Furuya. On behalf of Taiwan’s congress, President You once again welcomed the Japanese delegation to visit Taiwan. The reception and dinner banquet concluded after around three hours with an amicable atmosphere. (E)
