Mutual Agreement Between Japan and Taipei About Working Holiday

(Oita Godo Newspaper, April 3^rd 2009, evening paper)

(Taipei, 3 days of cooperation) During three days, Japan and Taipei settled a mutual agreement about "Working Holiday System" for the young generation in both countries. While working, the youngsters can stay as long as only one year at the same place and then they can have working holiday.

In Taiwan, Japan's comics, dramas, and fashion are popular to the large group of youngsters whom are usually called "Harizu". And the people in this group comprise of junior high school, high school, and university students who are learning Japanese language. The size of the group has increased to approximately 200,000 people. Because of this, the protest to remove the ban regarding working holiday with Japan had become stronger and since this year is "The Year to Promote the Relationship between Taiwan and Japan", the people had been making effort and enforce power to realize the action in a short period of time.

Following up the intention to realize the agreement, the representative of Taipei's economy and culture in Japan was welcomed in Tokyo Metropolitan area for three days, to finalize the administration and documentation of the agreement, regarding the acceptance of 2000 people per year reciprocally.

In 2005, Taiwan and Japan have removed the requirement of visa for entry to both countries. In a year, there are approximately 2,500,000 people who go back and forth to Japan and Taiwan. Furthermore, both Japan and Taiwan had agreed to recognize the validity of each other's driving license.

Comment: Actually, this is a good opportunity for Japan and Taiwan to strengthen their diplomatic relationship. Moreover, this policy involves young generation. If the relationship is built between the young people in both countries, it means that the relationship that is built up right now will be maintained in the future as well.

Katarina Marsha Utama Nugroho

Indonesia

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 3