Taiwan-Japan relations firm despite resignation: MOFA

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyushun said the MOFA respects the decision Monday by Masaki Saito, head of the Japan Interchange Association (JIA) in Taipei, to resign for personal reasons.

Relations between Taiwan and Japan are equitable and Taiwan could not have possibly forced the Japanese representative to resign, Shen said.

“The ministry respects the decision by Saito, the JIA and the Japanese government,” he said.

There have been a number of recent positive developments in the relations between Taiwan and Japan, Shen said, among them the opening of a Taiwan office in Sapporo Tuesday, which was the sixth of its kind and “a major milestone in bilateral relations.”

Saito's decision will not affect Japan-Taiwan relations, Shen stressed.

Saito's resignation is widely believed to have resulted from the controversy caused by his comment in May that “Taiwan's status remains unclear.”

The remark, made in Chaiyi County at a meeting of the Republic of China International Relations Association, angered Taiwan and resulted in Saito being given the cold shoulder.

He has been quiet over the past several months and has had very little interaction with Taiwanese officials in charge of relations with Japan.

Also, during a recent visit to Taiwan by a group of Japanese diet men, they asked that Saito be excluded from their meetings with President Ma Ying-jeou.

Shen reiterated Wednesday that the Republic of China's sovereignty is “undisputable.” When the Republic of China declared war against Japan in 1937, it abrogated all treaties signed between the two countries after the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895) that resulted in the Qing dynasty ceding Taiwan to Japan, he added.

In other responses Wednesday to Saito's resignation, the Presidential Office said that it respects his decision and that of the JIA, while Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said Japan “should have already chosen” a replacement envoy.

Even though Saito's replacement may not have specific ties with Taiwan, he or she should be “a diplomat with strong credibility,” he added.

He also praised Saito's performance over the past year, noting that during that time the two countries signed a working holiday pact and agreed to open an air route between Taipei Songshan Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport soon.

The local China Times newspaper suggested Wednesday that Yoshinori Katori, a former spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry who was previously stationed in Israel and South Korea, would be the most suitable person to take up the post.

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