Band Exchanges Proposed for Japan’s SDF, U.S., Taiwan Forces

Taipei, March 16 (Jiji Press)–Japanese lawmaker Keiji Furuya held talks with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in Taipei on Monday, proposing a plan to hold cultural exchanges among bands of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, the Taiwanese military and the U.S. military. Taiwan’s presidential office released a video of the meeting between Lai and Furuya of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, head of a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers aiming for stronger Tokyo-Taipei relations. “It’s just cultural exchanges, and there’s no reason for China to say anything,” Furuya said. Furuya told a press conference that Lai had expressed support for the proposal. Furuya also revealed that Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy there, also took a positive stance toward the proposal, in a meeting on Sunday. The Japanese lawmaker made a similar proposal in an English-language speech at a forum in Taipei on Monday. He said he and Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara had discussed the text of the speech in advance. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]