Three Taiwanese born during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan are planning to seek legal action to ask the Japanese government to restore their Japanese nationality, the Sankei Shimbun reported on Thursday.
Yang Fu-cheng (楊馥成), 97, Lin Yu-li (林余立), 92, and Hsu Hua-chi (許華杞), 85, will soon take the case to an Osaka local court to restore their Japanese nationality, which they lost after the end of World War II, the report quoted their lawyer, Shinichi Tokunaga, as saying.
It would be the first such case to be filed in a Japanese court by Taiwanese born in Taiwan when it was ruled by Japan, the lawyer was quoted as saying.
The three are asking the Tokyo government to restore their Japanese nationality based on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to a nationality” and “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality,” the report said.
After the Treaty of San Francisco that Japan inked with 48 other countries to end the US-led Allied occupation of Japan came into force on April 28, 1952, Tokyo renounced its jurisdiction over Taiwan.
However, this treaty also introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan, as it did not specify to which country Taiwan was to be surrendered. As a result, the sovereignty of Taiwan remains undetermined, Taiwanese independence campaigners say.
Neither the Republic of China (ROC) nor the People’s Republic of China were invited to sign the Treaty of San Francisco due to disagreements by other countries as to which government was the legitimate government of China during and after the Chinese Civil War.
Under pressure from the US, Japan signed the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty with the ROC (also known as the Treaty of Taipei) in April 1952 to bring the war between the two sides to an end, with victory for the ROC.
The Japanese Supreme Court in December 1962 ruled that after the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty took effect in August 1952, people born in Taiwan as Japanese nationals automatically lost their Japanese nationality.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and