Akie Abe, the widow of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, yesterday laid a wreath at a statue of her husband erected at a temple in Kaohsiung dedicated to members of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
While paying her respects, Abe said that her husband was very fond of Taiwan and had been planning to visit once the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
She thanked Taiwan for erecting the bronze statue as a tribute to her late husband following his assassination in July last while during a campaign rally in Japan.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
Akie Abe said she hoped the spirits of her husband and those commemorated at the temple would bring Taiwan and Japan closer together.
She also thanked Taiwan for lending a helping hand to Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, adding that through this visit to Taiwan, she again felt the deep friendship between the two countries.
Akie Abe arrived in Taiwan on Monday for a four-day visit at the invitation of the Taiwan Friends of Shinzo Abe Association.
Following a meeting with Vice President William Lai (賴清德) at a dinner banquet at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Monday, Akie Abe told reporters she was eager to thank Lai in person for traveling to Tokyo to pay his respects to her late husband last year.
During the banquet, at which she also met with Japanese students awarded scholarships by the association to study in Taiwan, Abe said that her husband “always thought about what he can do for Taiwan.”
In return, Lai said he expressed his gratitude to the former Japanese prime minister for his support of Taiwan following an earthquake in Tainan when Lai was mayor.
Abe is to visit the grave of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) at New Taipei City’s Wuchihshan Military Cemetery today.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS