TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chairman of the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council Furuya Keiji and the council’s secretary general, Kihara Minoru, will embark on a three-day visit to Taiwan next week to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

Furuya and Tsai will discuss improving defense mechanisms with the U.S., and share views on the live-fire military exercise carried out by China around Taiwan following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. The two will also review plans to send a delegation of council members to attend Double Ten Day celebrations and participate in a meeting between lawmakers from Japan, the U.S., and Taiwan about regional strategic affairs, according to Kyodo News.

Furuya last came to Taiwan to pay respects at a memorial service for late Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in September 2020. The Liberal Democratic Party politician previously met Tsai in January 2020.

The Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council has helped facilitate many unofficial exchanges between Japan and Taiwan over the years, per Liberty Times. After the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Taiwan donated surgical masks to Japan, while Japan provided Taiwan with vaccines with the help of the council.

It also helped bring Taiwanese pineapples to Japan after China’s ban on the fruit last March. Furuya used his personal connections to coordinate pineapple purchases by supermarkets in Gifu Prefecture, where his constituency is.