Taiwan's first lady to make private one-week trip to Japan

0 Comments | Asian Political News, July 17, 2000

TAIPEI, July 12 Kyodo

Taiwan's first lady Wu Shu-chen said Wednesday she will visit Japan for a one-week holiday from Sunday, and emphasized the trip is unrelated to politics.

Wu, who will be accompanied by her daughter Chen Hsing-yu, her mother Wang Hsia and her mother-in-law Lee Chen, said she is planning to visit a Japanese hot spring resort.

It will be Wu's first trip abroad since her husband Chen Shui-bian was inaugurated as Taiwan's second democratically elected president May 20.

Officials at the Presidential Office were eager to point out that visits to Japan by the wives of incumbent Taiwan presidents are nothing out of the ordinary.

They said former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's wife, Tseng Wen-fui, as well as Fang Yui, wife of former Taiwan Vice President Lien Chan, traveled to Japan while their husbands were in office.

They also said Wu had no problems obtaining an entry visa for Japan.

Wu did not reveal her exact itinerary, but said she was not planning to see any of her Japan-based relatives, but simply hopes to relax after the exhaustion of campaigning for her husband in the hotly contested March 20 presidential election.

Wu, who has been Chen's close aide throughout his political career, also urged the media not to play up the trip to avoid political complications. She has been paralyzed from the waist down since a politically motivated car accident in 1985.