An educational globe toy portraying Taiwan as a part of China at the insistence of Beijing is to be withdrawn, the Japanese firm that makes it said yesterday.
The talking "Smart Globe," aimed at Japanese children, gives information about countries when they are touched.
The ?29,400 (US$270) globe, manufactured in China by Japan's Gakken Toys Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Gakken Co Ltd, proved to be popular, with the first batch of 10,000 quickly selling out after its release last year.
PHOTO: AFP
The globe shows "Taiwan Island" and says that it is "the People's Republic of China," the official name of communist China.
Gakken said it had received complaints and apologized for its "inappropriate expression and display" on the globe.
"We deeply apologize for causing a tremendous nuisance," the company said in a statement.
It said it had advised subsidiary Gakken Toys to stop selling the globe. The group will offer full refunds starting next week for those already sold.
A Gakken spokesman said the company had initially planned simply to display "Taiwan," as is standard in Japanese school textbooks, but Beijing intervened.
"The place of production was China," he said. "The Chinese government's stance was that we could not export unless we changed the expression."
"We obeyed it although we had wavered on if we should follow the Chinese instructions or give up" on the product, he said. "We have faced accusations that we lack common sense."
A similar globe by another Japanese manufacturer does not speak even if the user touches Taiwan.
Japan only recognizes Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be as a part of China.
Since it switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1972, Tokyo has barred official contacts with Taiwan, a former Japanese colony, even though Taiwan enjoys widespread sympathy among Japanese conservatives.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include
RSS