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Japanese politician admits Taiwan dual citizenship

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-13
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Known as Japan’s strongest female politician, Democratic Party deputy leader Renho Murata, the

The file photo shows Democratic Party deputy leader Renho Murata.

The file photo shows Democratic Party deputy leader Renho Murata.

current frontrunner for the leadership of Japan’s main opposition party, is facing accusations of having dual citizenship with Taiwan. On Tuesday, she said at a press conference that Taiwan’s responsible authority has her on record as a citizen.
It is widely known that Renho, 48, was born to a Taiwanese father and Japanese mother in Tokyo, Japan. She is said to have acquired Japanese citizenship in 1985.

Renho is currently running for the position of president of the recently rebranded Democratic Party. She has recently been questioned for holding citizenship of Japan and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Some of the noise is being drummed up by Japanese nationalist right wing groups.

In a previous statement, Renho recalled that she paid a visit to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan to apply for renunciation of Taiwanese citizenship with the help of her father at the age of 17.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/13
By: Ku Chuan and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) The operation of a major MRT line in Taipei was thrown into chaos Tuesday 201609130041t0001after an engineering vehicle was derailed early that day, and operations only returned to normal in the evening.

It was the first time such an incident had occurred, and it is estimated that 15,000 passengers were affected, according to the Department of Rapid Transit Systems under the Taipei city government, which operates the MRT.

At 4:12 a.m., the engineering vehicle veered off the rail at Xiaonanmen (小南門) station moving toward Songshan (松山) station on the Xindian-Songshan Line. Because of the mishap, the section between Xiaonanmen station and Zhongshan station could only be operated on a one-line, two-way model.     FULL  STORY]

Nation braces for Typhoon Meranti

The China Post
Date: September 14, 2016
By Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Residents are bracing for a stormy Mid-Autumn Festival as Strong Typhoon Meranti

Residents are bracing for a stormy Mid-Autumn Festival as Strong Typhoon Meranti heads toward Taiwan.

Residents are bracing for a stormy Mid-Autumn Festival as Strong Typhoon Meranti heads toward Taiwan.

heads toward Taiwan.

With a radius of 200 kilometers, Meranti had sustained winds of 208.8 kph with gusts of up to 262.8 kph, as of 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

It is moving in a west-northwest direction at 21 kph.

The Central Weather Bureau issued a sea warning for the Bashi Channel and waters off the east coast on Monday evening.

A land warning was issued on Tuesday 8:30 a.m. for Taitung County, (including Orchid Island and Green Island,) Hengchun Peninsula, Pingtung County, Hualien County, Kaohsiung City, Tainan City, Nantou County, and Chiayi County.

People in these areas are advised to prepare for torrential rainfall, which can produce flash floods and mudslides. But the entire island will feel the storm’s wrath, forecasters said.     [FULL  STORY]

Neighbor buys back vet’s house

A FRIEND IN NEED:The 96-year-old’s neighbor became worried after the couple found out about the foreclosure on their home and started talking about suicide

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 13, 2016
By: Tsai Ching-huaand William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The neighbor of a 96-year-old veteran in Kaohsiung has bought back the man’s home after it went

A man surnamed Chang, left, and his visually impaired wife talk to reporters in their home in Kaohsiung on Friday last week. Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times

A man surnamed Chang, left, and his visually impaired wife talk to reporters in their home in Kaohsiung on Friday last week. Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times

into foreclosure, saving the man and his visually impaired wife from homelessness.

The man, surnamed Chang (張), said his 42-year-old daughter does not work regularly due to her drug addiction and that he and his wife barely see her. Chang said his daughter took out a mortgage without his knowledge and did not make the payments, which he only found out about when the bank delivered a foreclosure notice to his house.

Fearing Chang and his wife would be left homeless, neighbors collected more than NT$3 million (US$94,589) from friends and relatives to buy back the house.

Lu Wei-jun (呂緯濬) of the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Fongshan Precinct said he received a report from the local branch of KGI Bank saying that an elderly man was looking to withdraw his savings to buy back a foreclosed home. Lu said that at the time he believed it was a case of attempted fraud.     [FULLSTORY]

Editorial: Labor and capital need to work together to benefit each other

Editorial
Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-12
By: Cli Square, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The recent conflict between the capital and labor in Taiwan is centered on the issue of “overworking” 6773460and “disparate treatment” of the labor force on the surface, but the root cause is really the fact that “Taiwanese bosses are not satisfied with their employees, while the country’s workers do not like their bosses either.”

In fact, everyone wants to be able to live, and every enterprise wants to be able to sustain.

In order to live, individuals have to work to make money whether they are “blue-collar” or “white-collar” workers.

And for enterprises, they have to make profits in order to sustain. Besides paying for employees’ salaries, enterprises also have to pay for utilities in the working environments, rents for the working spaces, office supplies, costs of management and accounting, etc. Therefore, profits are made after the expenditure is deducted from the income. So an employee has to contribute to the company’s income at least 1.5 times of his or her salary to benefit the company. If you are a boss, you will think the same way, too.     [FULL  STORY]

Restaurant joins fund-raising for quake-struck Italian town

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/12
By: Kuan Rui-ping and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 12 (CNA) A restaurant located in a forest valley in Miaoli County, northern Taiwan, is 29178148demonstrating the empathy of Taiwanese people for the population of Amatrice, the Italian town hit by an earthquake last month, by joining an international appeal for “a future for Amatrice.”

Chef Chueh Chia-lian (闕嘉良) of the restaurant in Sanyi Township has recently put a symbolic dish of Amatrice on its menu and will donate the proceeds from sales of the dish, after deducting costs, to the devastated Italian town to help with its reconstruction, Chueh said Sunday.

The chef described the move as “eating spaghetti all’amatriciana to give a future for Amatrice.”

He explained that the classic Amatrice pasta is made of white wine, pasta, tomato, bacon, chili and cheese. The ingredients are so simple that farmers in the ancient town can cook the dish anytime, anywhere.     [FULL  STORY]

Central Weather Bureau forecasters mull alerts as Typhoon Meranti nears

NO DIRECT HIT?The bureau said that based on the storm’s projected path, it is not expected to make landfall in Taiwan, but it will bring lots of rain

Taipedi Times
Date: Sep 13, 2016
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Central Weather Bureau was scheduled to issue a sea alert late last night for Typhoon Meranti, p01-160913-newtyphoonwhich is threatening southern Taiwan, and it could not rule out the possibility of issuing a land alert this morning.

Meranti picked up strength at about 2pm yesterday, when its center was 1,000km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving northwest toward the coast of the Hengchun Peninsula at 22kph, the bureau said.

With a radius of 200km, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of about 183.6kph and gusts of up to 226.8kph, bureau data show.

The typhoon’s circumfluence could affect the weather in Taiwan today, with chances of showers being high in eastern, northern and southern regions as well as the mountainous area in the center of the nation, forecaster Lin Ding-yi (林定宜) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Tourism workers march for help

The China Post
Date: September 13, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — An estimated 10,000 people braved the rain Monday in a protest aimed at “waking

Protesters march on Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei on Monday, Sept. 12, demanding that the government take action to support the tourism industry. (Sun Hsin Hsuan, The China Post)

Protesters march on Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei on Monday, Sept. 12, demanding that the government take action to support the tourism industry. (Sun Hsin Hsuan, The China Post)

the government” to what they said was the tourism sector’s dire condition and urgent need for support.

Wearing yellow and white headbands reading “jobs and survival” and T-shirts that read, “This is a life-or-death situation for the tourism sector,” they marched from outside the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters to the Presidential Office to submit a petition letter.

According to the Tourism Industry Alliance, the ad hoc group organizing the protest — comprised of labor union members from 11 tourism-related business sectors — traveled from across the country to participate in the march.

Alliance spokesman Lee Chi-yueh (李奇嶽) said protesters demanded concrete measures from the government to stimulate the lagging tourism industry as Chinese visitor numbers declined.

Requests included simplifying the tourist visa application process, offering 72-hour visa-free entry to mainland Chinese travelers and free-of-charge visas, providing US$40 subsidies to foreigners visiting cities south of Taoyuan for more than two consecutive nights, promoting weekday domestic tourism by issuing travel bonds to Taiwan nationals, purchasing out-of-date buses and banning illegal hotels.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan filmmakers win international honors

Taiwan Today
Date: September 12, 2016

Taiwan directors Ang Lee and Midi Zhao were recently honored by London-headquartered 69121722571International Broadcasting Convention and Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean, respectively, for their artistic talents and filmmaking skills.

Oscar-winning Ang Lee was awarded the 2016 International Honor for Excellence by IBC—organizer of the world’s leading annual broadcasting industry exhibition—at a ceremony Sept. 11 in Amsterdam. For over two decades, he has led the way in utilizing cutting-edge science in the creation of some of the very finest works of cinematic art like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Life of Pi,” IBC said on its website.

Lee’s next work “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” uses a revolutionary cinematographic technique that establishes a new level of emotional connection with the on-screen characters while preserving artistic integrity over cinema and electronic entertainment market delivery formats, IBC added.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan tour operators demand help over business hit by worsening China ties

Asia One News Network
Date: Sep 12, 2016
By: Reuters

TAIPEI – About 10,000 Taiwan tourism operators and workers marched to a square in front of the

Representatives of the Taiwanese tourism industry take part in a march calling for the government to tackle the falling number of Chinese tourists. Photo: Reuters

Representatives of the Taiwanese tourism industry take part in a march calling for the government to tackle the falling number of Chinese tourists. Photo: Reuters

presidential hall on Monday to demand that the government take steps to help their businesses, hard hit by worsening ties with mainland China.

Relations between the self-ruled island and the mainland, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, have become strained since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May.
The mainland does not trust Tsai and is fearful her Democratic Progressive Party will push for independence for the island, an idea that is anathema to Beijing.

Government figures show arrivals from China fell 15 percent year on year in July and fell again in August.

The sector was also hit by a fire on a bus in July that killed 24 mainland tourists on their way to the island’s main airport to fly home.     [FULL  STORY]