Sayaka Chatani

Taiwan loves Ishihara?!

Chen Shui-bian made the inauguration speech on Thursday. I watched it on TV with some teachers and students at school. I will read the script again and compare each newspaper's op-ed, and then post my thought here, hopefully very soon. Just a quick note about this article, which reports the meeting between Chen/Lu and Ishihara (the Tokyo Governor). I know Taiwan is desperately trying to get support in Japan through him, and Ishihara also feels good when the Taiwanese say "the Japanese rule was not that bad," so there is a potential that they would create a close & sweet relationship. But I hope the Taiwanese government will be careful in handling his "right-wing"-ness and avoid creating an image directly connected to the Japanese right-wingers. I am concerned especially because Ishihara is such a guy who uses the word "San-goku-jin" (which is an old word despising the Taiwanese and Koreans living in Japan). Can you image the Japanese government trying to curry favor with an American politician who calls us "yellow monkeys"? How sad...