Taiwan May Hold Referendum on Ban on Food Imports from Japan

August 28, 2018

Taipei- Taiwan's biggest opposition Kuomintang, or the Nationalist Party, said Monday that it has collected signatures from 480,000 people for holding a referendum to decide whether to continue Taiwan's ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures.

The figure is far higher than the signatures from 1.5 pct, or some 280,000 people, or more of all eligible Taiwanese voters, needed to hold such a referendum.

The party started its campaign to collect signatures on July 24, fully mobilizing some 450,000 members across Taiwan.

Taiwan's Central Election Commission will screen the 480,000 signatures to decide whether to hold a referendum on the ban on food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures. The ban was introduced after the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in northeastern Japan.

Tseng Yung-chuan, deputy head of the party, called on voters to cast ballots for the continuation of the ban to protect the health of Taiwanese people and future generations.

The party hopes that a referendum on the food import ban will be held on Nov. 24, together with Taiwan's unified local elections.

After crashing to defeats in the previous unified local elections in 2014 and the presidential election in 2016, the party aims to revive its popularity through the upcoming local elections, ahead of the next presidential election, scheduled for 2020.

By showing opposition to moves by the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to resume imports of foods from the five Japanese prefectures, Kuomintang intends to highlight its differences from her ruling Democratic Progressive Party, sources familiar with the situation said.

In the potential referendum, support from at least one-fourth of all eligible voters, or about 4.7 million, would be needed for the food import ban to be kept intact.

It appears difficult for the requirement to be met in the referendum, one source said. Jiji Press