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according to taiwanese media reports, the taiwan executive yuan recently appointed japanese citizen takao nozaki living in taiwan as "political affairs advisor", making him the first foreigner to serve as "political affairs advisor" of the executive yuan, sparking heated discussions on the island.

image source: taiwan media

it is reported that takao nozaki, 50 years old this year, was a member of the nerima ward council in tokyo, japan. after resigning as a member of the council in 2007, he went to taiwan to pursue a doctorate in law. he settled in tainan in 2013 and founded the restaurant chain "mr. ramen" in taiwan. his wife is taiwanese.

image source: taiwan media

it is understood that according to convention, the taiwan administrative department will not publish the list of "political advisors" without pay, and the consultants will mainly receive their appointment letters individually. nozaki takao took the initiative to post a message on his personal facebook on the 7th and posted the appointment letter, and the outside world learned about his appointment. the taiwan administrative department also stated that in recent years, there have been no cases of selecting foreigners as "political advisors", and the appointment of japanese as "political advisors" is also rare. nozaki takao said that he was recommended by his friend of ten years, dpp "legislator" guo guowen, and also emphasized that he has obtained the qualification of permanent residence in taiwan and is a "new immigrant". in the future, he will continue to build a "taiwan-japan" friendship bridge and deepen exchanges between the two sides.

image source: taiwan media

it is worth mentioning that nozaki takao has a deep relationship with the leader of the taiwan authorities, lai qingde. it is understood that nozaki takao was hired as an advisor to the tainan city government in 2016, when lai qingde was the mayor at the time, and was subsequently reappointed three times. the current tainan mayor huang wei-che also hired nozaki as a "city diplomacy advisor."

according to earlier reports by taiwanese media, in his capacity as an advisor, nozaki takao has accompanied lai ching-te on many occasions to receive japanese delegations, and has also assisted the current tainan mayor huang weizhe in developing relations with japan, and initiated the establishment of the tainan japanese association. previously, there was criticism on the island that the tainan city government wanted to use nozaki's special status to make tainan's exchanges with japan more "flattering".

image source: taiwan media

it is understood that nozaki takao's consultant contract is for one year. this news also sparked heated discussions among netizens on the island. some netizens ridiculed: "the owner of a ramen shop can be a government consultant. let's see if taiwan's ramen industry can be upgraded as a result!" "what's unusual? everything the dpp does is normal and legal!"

some netizens criticized: "it turns out we are still in the japanese occupation era!!" "is there no one left in taiwan?" "are you so anxious to sell taiwan?"