• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Taiwan "Looks Forward to Better Ties With Japan" After Election

Posted on: Sunday, 11 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Text of report in English by Sofia Wu, carried by Taiwanese Central News Agency website

Taipei, 11 September: The Republic of China [ROC] looks forward to increasingly reinforced ties with Japan after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won a mandate to push ahead with his reform programme in Sunday's [11 September] lower house elections, an official said.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michel Lu made the remarks after Koizumi said late Sunday night that it appeared his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had won a lower house majority. The leader of the main opposition Democratic Party conceded defeat later.

Lu said Japan is one of Taiwan's most important trade partners and democratic allies.

"We are concerned about the results of the Japanese parliamentary elections. For Taiwan, it is hoped that the Koizumi government will continue working for peace and stability in the West Pacific region, particularly further boosting friendly ties with Taiwan on the current basis," Lu said.

Public broadcaster NHK and several commercial networks said exit polls indicated the Liberal Democrats stood to win as many as 309 of the powerful lower house's 480 seats, 60 more than it held before Koizumi dissolved it. TBS, another network, said the LDP would win 307 seats.

The main opposition party, the Democrats, was expected to win 104 seats, a devastating plunge from its previous standing of 175 seats, NHK said.

An official vote count won't be released until Monday morning.

Lu said the foreign ministry will ask the ROC's representative office in Tokyo to convey felicitations from President Chen Shui- bian, Premier Frank Hsieh and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tan Sun Chen to Japanese authorities after the final electoral outcome is announced.

Meanwhile, Koh Se-kai, the ROC representative to Japan, said he believes that Taiwan-Japan relations will continue to grow steadily after the LDP won a landslide victory in the lower house election Sunday. The victory has granted Koizumi overwhelming public approval for his plan to privatize Japan's postal service.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

More News in this Category