Taiwan's Legislative Speaker You Si-kun said Thursday he plans to lead a trial ferry run from the island's eastern county of Yilan to Japan's westernmost inhabited island of Yonaguni next week in a bid to boost tourism and ties between the two sides.
Keiji Furuya, who heads a cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers dedicated to strengthening Japan-Taiwan relations, will meet the 80-member delegation led by You upon arrival at Yonaguni. He will then join the return trip to Yilan later that day, according to the secretariat of the island's Legislative Yuan.
The round trip, which takes a little over four hours, is currently scheduled for Tuesday, but is dependent on the weather.
Yonaguni Island in Okinawa Prefecture lies just 111 kilometers from Taiwan and under good visibility can be seen from Yilan. When Taiwan was under Japanese rule between 1895 and 1945, the two islands formed a single economic zone.
There are currently no direct flights or ferry services between Yilan and Yonaguni Island.
Despite the fanfare, You said he does not have a timeline on regular ferry boat services linking Yilan and Yonaguni, saying the project is still at the stage of "breaking the ice" between the two sides.
If the ferry service materializes, You said that Yonaguni Island will not only attract Taiwanese tourists but also Japanese visitors to Yilan who will add the Okinawa island, which has a population of just 1,700, to their itinerary.
It remains unclear whether You's boat trip will irk China, which views the self-governed territory as a renegade province and opposes any official contact between the island and other countries.
Japan has been bolstering its defense of the Nansei Islands chain stretching southwest from Kyushu toward Taiwan, including Yonaguni Island, apparently in response to China's intensifying military activities in nearby waters.
China and Taiwan have been separately governed since they split in 1949 due to a civil war. Beijing has never renounced the use of military force to bring the island into its fold.
