The Japan Times
Date: APR 4, 2016
By: Nick Horton, Staff Writer

A recent Taiwanese court ruling that found a Japanese man was entitled to compensation

Former comfort woman Chen Lien-hua talks to reporters at a ceremony in Taipei on March 8 to unveil the nameplate of a museum dedicated to Taiwanese women forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels. | REUTERS

over his father’s presumed death during the so-called 228 Incident has reignited calls for Japan to redress the former colony’s few remaining “comfort women.”

In a first for a non-Taiwanese national, the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled on Feb. 17 that 72-year-old Keisho Aoyama, from Urasoe in Okinawa Prefecture, should be paid 6 million New Taiwan dollars (about ¥21 million) by the state-funded Memorial Foundation of 228 over the wrongful death of his father, Eisaki, in 1947.

Aoyama’s father is believed to be one of more than 20,000 people killed in the anti-government uprising that began on Feb. 28 that year, following a crackdown on unauthorized tobacco sales in Taipei, and which inflamed underlying tensions between Taiwanese and the nascent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.

Aoyama filed the suit last September following a failed application to the memorial foundation, which rejected his compensation claim on the grounds that Japan had never paid reparations to Taiwanese “comfort women” or soldiers conscripted into the wartime Imperial Japanese Army.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-04
By: Central News Agency

The Republic of China (Taiwan) has its own foreign policy and will not join forces with China or act in its interests on South China Sea issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Monday.

The ministry reaffirmed the country’s long-held stance after some claimed that the government’s recent moves to highlight Taiping Island’s legal status, including an invitation to foreign news media to visit the island, was serving the interests of China.

Because China claims Taiping Island as its own, Taiwan must lower its voice in the international community to curb Beijing’s expansionism in the South China Sea, they have contended.

The ministry reiterated the government’s contention that from the perspectives of history, geography and international law, the ROC has sovereignty over the Spratly (Nansha) Islands, the Paracel (Xisha) Islands, the Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha Islands), and the Pratas (Dongsha) Islands in the South China Sea, and their waters.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/04
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Nearly 8,000 people from the same clan packed their ancestral shrine in the northern Taiwan municipal city of Taoyuan Monday to take part in a group ceremony during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival to worship their ancestors.

The worshipers, who all share the same surname of Yeh (葉), traveled from around Taiwan and other countries, including the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, to the Yeh Family Ancestral Shrine in Xinwu District on the annual holiday to honor ancestors at their graves.

The gathering marked the largest tomb-sweeping group in Taoyuan in this year’s Tomb Sweeping Festival, which is observed in early April each year as a time for families to gather together and ceremonially clean their family tombs.

According to the Yeh Clan Association, their lineage goes back to Yeh Chun-jih (葉春日), who traveled by boat from China to Taiwan in 1735, when the mainland was ruled by Qing Dynasty.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 05, 2016
By: Lisa Wang / Staff reporter, with AP

More than 16,000 Taiwanese investors’ offshore account details were published yesterday in a massive document leak by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the ICIJ Web site showed.

The documents, dubbed the “Panama Papers,” showed how Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca allegedly helps its clients avoid taxes and skirt financial oversight.

The ICIJ Web site said the firm has about 16,785 Taiwanese clients, including individuals and enterprises. Based on more than 11.5 million leaked files, the investigation has exposed people who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking, the ICIJ said on its Web site.

Mossack Fonseca worked with more than 14,000 banks, law firms, corporations and other go-betweens to set up companies, foundations and trusts for clients, the ICIJ said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-04
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

After two days’ first-round battling over the weekend, eight teams are qualified to vie for the one million NT dollars top prize money of the high school and college Song-Jiang Jhen creative battle array contest on April 9 in Neimen District, Kaohsiung City.

The final-round contest is scheduled to take place from 10:00 – 17:20 on Saturday at Shun-Sian Temple.

The eight teams are from Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, National Formosa University, University of Taipei, National Siluo Agricultural Industrial High School, I-Shou University, Shih Chien University, Chih Yung Senior High School, and National University of Tainan.

In addition to the inter-school competition, many teams participated in the one-day Civil Kung Fu Fitness Exercise Contest on April 4 at the same venue. The contest is open to any teams regardless of team members’ age and sex and offers NT$60,000, NT$40,000 and NT$30,000 to the first, second and third place winners, respectively.

According to event organizer, Kaohsiung City Government, Neimen has a long history of battle array culture and outshines other places in terms of team density.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/04
By: Yang Ssu-jui and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Some 200 descendants of the Chiang (江) clan followed an ancient ritual to pay respects to their ancestors at an ancestral tomb in Nanxi District of Tainan City Monday.

In addition to offering incense and chanting a eulogy, the Chiangs kneeled and bowed before the tombstone that marked their ancestors’ names and family genealogy.

All participants were each given a turtle-shaped rice cake which symbolizes peace and safety before attending a lunch party featuring spring rolls in their clan compound.

Chiang Chin-ching (江晉清), organizer of the annual event, said 30 families currently live in Nanxi Township’s Lutaoyang area, a 3.5-hectare area that is arguably the largest concentration of members of a single clan in Southeast Asia. At its peak, 136 families lived there, forming the Lutaoyang branch of the Chiang clan.     [FULL  STORY]