Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan on the Presidential Election in Taiwan

January 14, 2012
Japanese

On Saturday, January 14, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou was reelected in Taiwan. We see the smooth conduct of the election as sign of a well-established democracy in Taiwan.
Japan hopes that the issue surrounding Taiwan will be resolved peacefully by direct dialogue between the parties concerned, and that the Cross-Strait dialogue will be continued seamlessly from that perspective.
As Taiwan is an important region that Japan has close economic relations with and frequent mutual visits of people, the Government of Japan expects the continued and steady development of cooperative working relations between Japan and Taiwan, in accordance with Japan's position of maintaining the relations with Taiwan as working relations on a non-governmental basis.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

(END)