Japanese House of Representatives member Tamaki Yuichiro visited Taiwan for the first time this week, meeting President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) at the Presidential Office on Monday. Tamaki is head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPFP) in the National Diet of Japan, making his visit that much more significant.
At the meeting, the president pointed out that Tamaki’s visit marks a key moment for bilateral relations between Japan and Taiwan. He said that he looks forward to Taiwan joining hands with Japan and the United States to build a “non-red” supply chain, particularly in semiconductors, drones, and hydrogen energy.
Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who accompanied the president, posted on his Facebook about the Japan-South Korea-U.S. leaders’ summit that took place in Washington D.C. earlier this month, highlighting the joint statement they issued opposing any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait by force or coercion and supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations. Lin says this not only shows peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region remains a consensus among democratic nations, but that the U.S. and Japan will continue to implement the Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept first proposed by the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.