Former Japanese ambassador to Peru Kazuyuki Katayama is said to be taking on the post of Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative next month, an appointment that demonstrates the importance Japan attaches to Taiwan, political commentator Akio Yaita said.
Katayama is to succeed Hiroyasu Izumi as Japan’s de facto ambassador to Taiwan, Jiji Press reported on Thursday, citing several people familiar with the matter.
Katayama, who joined the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983, was appointed ambassador to Peru in July 2020 and was dismissed from the post at his own request this month, it said.
Photo: Lin Tsuei-yi, Taipei Times
As Japan and Taiwan have no formal diplomatic relations, it is customary for former diplomatic officials who retire to take on the post, it said.
Peru is important to Japan, as it is home to the third-largest Japanese immigrant community in the world after Brazil and the US, Yaita wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
The appointment of a former ambassador to Peru to Taiwan shows that the Japanese government attaches great importance to Taiwan, he said.
As “an old friend,” Yaita called Katayama an “experienced diplomat” who is “gentle and clear-minded.”
Yaita said that he hoped to see greater economic cooperation between Taiwan and Japan, as Katayama is an expert on economic issues.
In addition, Yaita hoped that Katayama could use his connections to help Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which Peru is a member state.
Katayama has visited Taiwan five times in private and speaks fluent Mandarin, having studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University.
Yaita also thanked Izumi for his hard work over the past four years in Taiwan, saying that he has played a major role in work that led to the relationship between Japan and Taiwan being described as “the best in history” in recent years.
In related news, the Tourism Administration is leading the largest delegation to date in a promotion of Taiwan tourism at this year’s Tourism Expo Japan in Osaka.
The delegation is comprised of 109 representatives of 68 exhibitors, including Taiwanese travel agencies, accommodation companies, airlines and local governments, the agency said in a news release yesterday.
The agency held a business meeting on Wednesday to introduce incentives to visit Taiwan, such as travel deals, tour packages and prize draws, it said.
At the Taiwan booth set up by the agency, potential tourists are able to get travel information, engage in interactive activities such as making bubble milk tea and Lunar New Year’s couplets, and watch performances by professional cheerleading squads, it said.
The agency hoped the four-day event, which lasts until tomorrow, could help raise the number of tourists visiting Taiwan to 6 million this year.
According to statistics on the agency’s Web site, nearly 5 million tourists had visited Taiwan as of last month.
Additional reporting by Lin Tsuei-yi and CNA
‘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
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
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
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
RSS