Taipei City Government

Mayor Ko Wen-je and Ehime Prefecture Governor Tokihiro Nakamura signed a memorandum on strengthening friendly exchanges between the two municipalities at city hall on May 18.
In addition, the bicycle trail network in both Taipei and Ehime are to become “sister cycling trails” as a way of strengthening tourism, culture, sports, and industrial exchanges.
According to Ko, he has learned much from the trip to Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka in February when he had a chance to meet several Japanese mayors and governors and learn from their experiences. He believes that Taiwan can learn a lot from Japan, and he is pleased to have the opportunity to strengthen friendly ties with Ehime in many areas.
Nakamura remarked that he is happy to meet Mayor Ko again. He also expressed his gratitude on behalf of the residents of Ehime Prefecture for the signing of the memorandum with Taipei.
He recalled that the beginning of bilateral ties came about due to the identical Chinese characters ‘Song’ and ‘Shan’ (‘Matsuyama in Japanese) in the name of places located in both municipalities. There is a direct flight once a year between Taipei’s Songshan Airport and its counterpart in Ehime Prefecture, as well as frequent exchange between the two train stations with the same name.
According to the governor, Ehime Prefecture began promoting the culture of cycling with the help of Giant Bicycles founder King Liu five years ago. The memorandum included a special note on cycling exchange, hoping that one day Mayor Ko can visit Ehime for some ‘bicycle’ diplomacy.