Taipei, Nov. 1 (CNA) Japan’s outgoing envoy to Taiwan encouraged the country’s people to stay “strong and be resilient” in the knowledge that a “unique bond” meant Taipei had Tokyo’s support.
“Be strong and be resilient, Taiwan,” Hiroyasu Izumi, representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, told CNA when asked to say a few words to Taiwanese people as he is about to conclude his four-year tenure in Taipei next week.
Izumi assumed office as head of the association, which functions as Japan’s de facto embassy in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic relations, in November 2019.
Although Tokyo switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1972, Taiwan and Japan have maintained close unofficial ties as well as people-to-people and business and trade exchanges.
Commenting on his experiences over the past four years, Izumi told CNA that it was his and his office’s duty to “encourage and root” for Taiwan, particularly as Japan had twice“given up” Taiwan in history.
He was referring to the fact that following World War II, Japan renounced its sovereignty over Taiwan, which had been under Japanese rule since 1895 when the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan following the First Sino-Japanese War.
The second time Japan gave up Taiwan was with the severing of diplomatic relations in 1972, according to Izumi.
The envoy said he understood that with so few countries recognizing Taiwan, its people may feel like orphans in the international community.
“So it is our mission to encourage and root for Taiwan,” he stressed.
That is also why Japan will firmly support Taiwan in its ongoing bid to join a Tokyo-led regional trade bloc, namely, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as well as other international organizations, he added.
“If we do not do this job, who will?” he said.
Izumi also stressed the close bond between Japan and Taiwan that is “rare among democracies in the world.”
Despite the lack of official relations, both sides have supported each other during major natural disasters for decades, including the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, as well as during the pandemic, when Taipei first donated face masks to Tokyo before Tokyo returned the favor by donating COVID-19 vaccines to Taipei, he said.
Izumi said that one regret he had regarding his tenure was not getting to meet with Taiwan’s former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) before his passing on July 30, 2020, at the age of 97.
The envoy said he has long admired Lee, Taiwan’s first popularly elected president, who spoke fluent Japanese and was known for his Japan-friendly views.
Izumi said he was also sad about the passing of Shinzo Abe in 2022.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, died on July 8, 2022, at the age of 67, hours after he was shot twice by a man with a makeshift shotgun on the streets of Nara, near Osaka, during an election rally.
Abe is remembered in some quarters as a staunch backer of Taiwan, especially by supporters of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, partly because he commented that “a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency.”
But Izumi said he was not particularly worried that the passing of the two political icons, namely, Lee and Abe in Taiwan and Japan, would negatively impact ties between Taipei and Tokyo.
He used Japan’s unofficial national flower, the cherry blossom, to symbolize Japan-Taiwan relations.
Although the cherry blossom is relatively plain, the deep friendship and bonds shared by the people of Japan and Taiwan means there are already countless cherry blossoms blooming, he said.
“Even if we no longer have great leaders [like Lee and Abe], we now have tens of thousands of flowers blooming, which will help bilateral relations to continue to flourish,” he added.
It is thought that Izumi will be replaced by Kazuyuki Katayama, Japan’s former ambassador to Peru, though both Tokyo and Taipei have yet to officially make the announcement.
The 63-year-old Katayama previously served as Japan’s consul-general in Shanghai and is reportedly fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
(By Joseph Yeh)
Enditem/ASG
