Cabinet appoints ex-Japan Self-Defense Forces head as unpaid adviser

Taipei, March 21 (CNA) The Executive Yuan, Taiwan's highest administrative organ, has appointed former chief of Japan's Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff, Shigeru Iwasaki, as a political affairs consultant, an Executive Yuan official told reporters Friday.

The official said the Executive Yuan seeks advice from its consultants on government affairs to promote Taiwan's development but, as is customary, does not publish information regarding unpaid consultants.

The confirmation of Iwasaki's appointment as an unpaid adviser came after he was mentioned by former Taipei bureau chief of Japan's Sankei Shimbun Akio Yaita, who said he had dinner with Iwasaki in Taipei Thursday in a Facebook post.

Yaita, who now runs a Taipei-based thinktank, said Iwasaki was invited by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) to visit Taiwan for the one-year appointment.

According to Yaita, he has never heard of such appointments involving former high-level Japanese military officials as a consultant of Taiwan's Cabinet.

Iwasaki, who served as chief of Japan's Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff between 2012 and 2014, is a well-connected and influential figure in Japan, Yaita said in the Facebook post.

According to a report published by Japan's Asahi Shimbun Friday, Iwasaki, "the former top uniformed officer of the Self-Defense Forces," retired in October 2014 and then served as a special policy adviser to the Japanese defense ministry.

The report also said Japanese restaurant owner Takao Nozaki was the first foreigner to be appointed as a political affairs consultant by Taiwan's Cabinet.

Nozaki, who studied for a doctorate in law at National Taiwan University and later obtained permanent residency, made public about his appointment on Sept. 7 last year in a Facebook post.