
A 14-member cross-party delegation from Taiwan's Legislative Yuan arrived in Tokyo on Monday for the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union assembly, opening the trip with a 90-minute lunch hosted by the Japanese parliamentary league that handles relations with Taipei. Deputy Speaker Chiang Chi-chen is leading the group on behalf of Speaker
Han Kuo-yu, and the delegation is attending the union's 88th council meeting and 54th general assembly, CNA reported.
The group draws from all three parties in the legislature. Alongside Chiang it includes the Kuomintang's Hung Meng-kai, Lin Ssu-ming, Cheng Cheng-chien, Wang Yu-min, Tu Chuan-chi and Huang Jen; the Democratic Progressive Party's Kuo Yu-ching, Lin Chu-yin, Lin Shu-fen, Chen Kuan-ting, Lo Mei-ling and Chiu Chih-wei; and the Taiwan People's Party's Hsu Chung-hsin.
Furuya Keiji, speaking for the Japanese side, credited Taiwan with rapid economic growth over the past decade and singled out TSMC's effect on Japan, saying cooperation between the two produces gains for both and that he hoped industrial ties would deepen further, Liberty Times reported.
Chiang set out where the exchange is densest. The current Legislative Yuan has received close to 20 delegations of Japanese Diet members so far, he said, and beyond TSMC's plant in Kumamoto, bilateral trade volume and two-way tourism have both repeatedly reached new highs. He described the two economies as highly complementary and the relationship between their populations as close as brothers, built from the ground up rather than arranged from above.
Chiang also offered condolences over the recent earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture and said he hoped reconstruction would go smoothly. The lunch covered relations, trade and public transport before the delegation moved on to the assembly proper.
Figures referenced: Han Kuo-yu. — JudgeMarket.