Japan is upset about the proximity of Taiwanese naval drills to Japanese territory, media reports said yesterday.
According to the reports, Taiwan's navy announced on the Internet that it would conduct training exercises in airspace and waters east of Ilan County -- near Japan's Yonaguni Island -- earlier this month.
Yonaguni, which is part of Okinawa Prefecture, is a mere 125km off the east coast of Taiwan.
Both broadcast and print media reports said that the Japanese Foreign Ministry had asked Taiwan through the Japanese Interchange Association (JIA) to change the location of the military exercises.
The JIA is Tokyo's representative office in Taipei.
Some reports quoted unnamed Japanese Foreign Ministry officials as saying that Taiwan should have informed Japan in advance of its military training plans near Yonaguni Island.
According to a report in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday, Okinawa Prefecture Governor Keiichi lnamine was not happy that Taiwan's navy had carried out military drills in the vicinity of Okinawa. He said he wanted to prevent accidents like one last week in which a Russian patrol killed a Japanese fisherman and captured three others, saying their fishing boat had crossed into Russian waters.
Taiwan's representative to Okinawa, Chen Jyh-hong (
However, he added, it would be "inappropriate" for the governor to make a connection between the Russian shooting incident and Taiwanese naval drills.
Taiwan, by carrying out a drill in a designated area, did not violate international regulations, he said.
Meanwhile the nation's top military propagandist, Vice Admiral Sun Yi-cheng (
He said that since the navy was unlikely to enter any foreign country's territorial waters, it need not serve prior notice to neighboring countries about its military training plans.
Moreover, the navy invariably releases its training schedules and the exact locations of the drills with sufficient explanations, graphics and illustrations, Sun said.
He said the Japanese might have misunderstood the data: "Questions raised by Japanese authorities might have arisen from [them] misreading our vector graphics."
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to