《TAIPEI TIMES》 Ferry service between Keelung and Ishigaki begins

The Yaima Maru passenger and cargo ferry docks in the Port of Keelung yesterday, before it is launched later in the day to operate a route between Keelung and Japan’s Ishigaki Island. Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP

By Yi-chin Lee and Ann Wang / Reuters, KEELUNG A new ferry service between Taiwan and Japan began yesterday, on a ship that could also be used to evacuate people on southern Japanese islands in the event of a war in the region.

The Yaima Maru is one of the ships that the Japanese government this year put on a list of vessels to be used to evacuate island residents to mainland Japan in case of a crisis.

For now, it would be used to shuttle tourists back and forth between Keelung and Japan’s Ishigaki — to the east of Taiwan at the bottom of the Ryukyu Islands — once a week on an overnight journey.

“This regular route is not merely transportation infrastructure,” Ishigaki Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama said at the Port of Keelung. “It serves as a new bridge that supports tourism, logistics, economic activity, cultural exchange and education.”

The US has a major military base in Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands, and Japan has been bolstering its defenses in the area, including on Yonaguni, the Japanese island that sits closest to Taiwan.

Tatsuya Ohama, president of Shosen Yaima, which runs the ferry service, declined to directly answer questions about regional tensions.

“This is fundamentally a matter between countries. As a private ferry operator, our first step is to get the service up and running,” he told reporters.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES