The Japanese government welcomed the victory of Tsai Ing-wen, leader of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, in the island's presidential election on Saturday.
"The government of Japan congratulates ... Ms. Tsai on her victory again," Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in a statement released on that day.
"Taiwan is an important partner and a precious friend of Japan," Motegi pointed out. "We share basic values and enjoy close economic relationship and people-to-people exchange.
"The government will work toward further deepening cooperation and exchanges between Japan and Taiwan."
Tsai attaches importance to relations with Japan and frequently posts in Japanese on her Twitter account. In October 2015, prior to assuming the presidency, Tsai visited Japan and met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During the visit, she was escorted on a trip to Yamaguchi Prefecture, Abe's home base, by Nobuo Kishi, the prime minister's younger brother and a member of the House of Representatives.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to pay a state visit to Japan this spring, and current relations between Japan and China are relatively stable. However, as Chinese government ships have been more frequently navigating near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, the Japanese government is seeking to strengthen ties with Taiwan over China's assertive expansion into the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
The Japanese government plans to continuously seek Taiwan's lifting of import restrictions on Japanese food products, which were imposed in the wake of the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
