Taiwan opposition lawmakers visit Japan's Diet to boost exchanges

Tokyo, Sept. 4 (CNA) A delegation of lawmakers from Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), led by caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), visited Japan's Diet on Thursday as part of an ongoing trip aimed at strengthening bilateral exchanges.

Japanese lawmaker Keiji Furuya received the 27-member KMT group at the First Members' Office Building of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet.

Furuya is a veteran member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and chair of the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council, which promotes bilateral ties in the Diet.

Furuya and 14 other council members welcomed the visiting Taiwanese lawmakers.

Furuya said he looked forward to welcoming Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), a senior KMT member, during Han's upcoming trip to Japan later this month.

A source told CNA that Han is scheduled to lead a cross-party legislative delegation to Japan from Sept. 25-29 to promote parliamentary diplomacy. The group is also expected to visit Expo 2025 in Osaka, the source said.

KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), who joined the current trip, wrote in a Facebook post that the visit to Japan's Diet reflects the party's long-term goal of fostering friendly exchanges with Japan.

The KMT hopes such exchanges between the two legislatures can become routine to help strengthen cooperation on security, supply chain resilience, and people-to-people ties, Lee said.