TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The fourth Taiwan Book Fair was launched in Tokyo on Monday.
The month-long event is organized by the Taiwan Cultural Center in Japan and Japan’s major bookstore chain Kinokuniya, CNA reported. This year’s fair focuses on gender culture in Taiwan and is held across 38 participating Kinokuniya branches in Japan.
An opening ceremony was held at the main Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku.
Taiwan’s representative to Japan, Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), said that Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage and currently ranks sixth globally and first in Asia on international gender equality indices. These achievements, he said, are the result of long-term government policies promoting gender equality and the efforts of civil society.
Lee said that in Japan, women accounted for 32% of those elected in this year’s House of Councillors election. This shows Japan’s progress in gender equality, he said. Following the election of Sanae Takaichi as the first female prime minister, Lee said it feels like the dawn of a new era in Japan’s political culture.
