President Lai receives hand-delivered letter from Japan's incoming PM

Taipei, Oct. 10 (CNA) Japan's incoming Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has sent a letter to President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), which was delivered on Friday by a delegation of Japanese parliamentarians, one of its members said.

Hajime Sasaki, a senior official of the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council, said at a press conference in Taipei that he did not see the contents of the letter but believed it was a thank-you note in response to Lai's congratulatory message to Takaichi on her recent election as prime minister.

Takaichi's handwritten letter was delivered to Lai during a luncheon he hosted on Friday for the group of Japanese parliamentarians, who were in Taiwan to attend its 114th National Day celebrations, Sasaki told the press.

According to his understanding, he said, Takaichi wrote the letter in her capacity as the newly elected leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and addressed it to the chairman of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who is Lai.

Similar letters have been sent before by LDP leaders to the heads of Taiwan's ruling party, Sasaki said.

Sasaki is one of the 28 delegates from the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council who are on a two-day visit primarily to attend Taiwan's National Day celebrations.

The parliamentary council, which promotes bilateral ties between Taiwan and Japan, comprises more than 260 Japanese lawmakers from different political parties, and its members attend Taiwan's Double Ten Day celebrations -- as they are also called -- practically every year.

Takaichi, a senior Diet member who served as minister of state for economic security from 2022 to 2024, defeated Shinjiro Koizumi in an LDP leadership runoff on Oct. 4.

Japan's parliament, the National Diet, is expected to confirm her as prime minister on Oct. 15, which would make her the country's first female prime minister and its first leader from Nara Prefecture.