Japanese have better image of Pres. Ma: JCCI head Ogura

As a Harvard Law School student, Ma took an active part in an anti-Japanese movement to defend Taiwan's sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands, contested by Japan. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the eight uninhabited isles, known as the Senkakus in Japanese.

This stereotype of Ma has lingered until after he was elected president last year.

“That image is being changed,” says Kazuhira Ogura, president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Taipei.

Few businesspeople now consider Ma an anti-Japanese activist, Ogura points out. Ma's pro-Japan policy, he adds, has helped his image change for the better. The burgeoning detente between Taiwan and China has also helped.

“So much so that Japanese are now coming to know Taiwan under Ma's leadership will be of help to their business ventures in China,” says Ogura, chairman of the Mitsubishi Corporation in Taiwan.

Medium-sized and small businesses, in particular, are eager to have partners in Taiwan for joint ventures in China, Ogura opines.

Should they operate alone in China, Ogura goes on, Japanese businesses have only a half-and-half chance of success. “The chance of success goes up to 70 percent or more if they go to China as joint-venture business partners with Taiwan entrepreneurs,” he emphasizes.

Their Taiwan partners know much better how to cope with Chinese bureaucracy and are better accustomed to the way businesses are run on the mainland.

This means Taiwan businesses attract substantial investment from Japan for starting joint ventures in China. This benefits local businesses as they need Japanese expertise, too. “It's a mutually complementary operation, beneficial mutually to Taiwan and Japan,” says Ogura, who has run the Taipei affiliate of one of the largest Japanese business conglomerate for 15 years.

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