An increase of ¥100 million (US$878,765) to Japan’s annual foreign affairs budget is for “advancing the Japan-Taiwan relationship,” information published on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Web site showed.
The ministry’s budget for last year was ¥1.7 billion; it was increased to ¥1.8 billion for this year.
The ministry wrote that the additional funding was to be used for “cooperating with allies and like-minded countries to safeguard the universal values of the international community.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Regarding Taiwan specifically, the ministry said that it was “responding to an increasingly complex security and economic environment,” and that it aimed to “strengthen diplomacy and cooperation with neighboring countries and regions.”
The last time Taiwan was specifically named in a Japanese budget report was in 2012, following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster that had occurred a year earlier, a source said yesterday.
“That year, Taiwan was mentioned due to the assistance it provided Japan following the disaster, whereas this year it is due to the greater general emphasis Japan is putting on its relationship with Taiwan,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Since Japan and Taiwan lack formal diplomatic ties, the additional funding would be handled by the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, the source said.
However, the association is about the size of Japan’s medium-sized embassies, such as those in Canada and Malaysia, the source said.
Part of the increased funding this year would be used to further the aims of the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), the source said.
The GCTF is a “platform for the development of human resources” launched by the US and Taiwan in 2015, the association’s Web site says.
Through the framework, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) host workshops on areas of common interest in the region, such as public health and environmental issues, inviting government officials and experts from different countries to attend them, it says.
As for China, Japan is to spend an additional ¥60 million this year on an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japan relations, the source said.
Japan also plans to establish a Taiwan division in its Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa said last month.
The move has been seen as sign of the growing importance to Japan of its relationship with Taiwan, the source said, adding that other signs include COVID-19 vaccine donations.
Taiwan has also donated medical equipment to Japan.
“The Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association has over the past few days been posting letters of gratitude from frontline medical workers on its Web site,” the source said.
Letters have been received from Japan’s Kanagawa, Chiba, Ibaraki, Nagasaki, Saka, Shiga, Fukui and Kyoto prefectures, and have described Taiwan and Japan as having a “strong friendship” that would manifest in “other forms of cooperation long after the pandemic is over,” they said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner