Taipei, Sept. 18 (Jiji Press)–Taiwan has donated more than 300 million New Taiwan dollars, or 1.5 billion yen, collected from the public to Japan to support areas affected by a massive earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture in July. In a ceremony at the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry in Taipei on Thursday, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung handed a list of the donations to Kazuyuki Katayama, chief representative of the Taipei office of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association. In his address, Lin said that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Japan and Taiwan have helped each other in times of major disasters, he said, calling for deeper bilateral cooperation in disaster prevention and mitigation. Katayama replied that the positive cycle of those who were helped becoming helpers is proof of the friendship between Japan and Taiwan, expressing his gratitude for the donations. In order to raise disaster relief funds from the public, the ministry opened a dedicated bank account for a month from Aug. 1. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
