Taiwan has missed an opportunity to strengthen diplomatic ties with Japan after first lady Chow Mei-ching cancelled a planned trip to Tokyo.

Chow has been scheduled to participate in an exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum on June 23 where Taiwan's National Palace Museum collections were on display. However, the first lady cancelled her trip after the word “national” was taken out from materials distributed by local media sponsors, according to a report by China Times Taiwan published June 24.

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This left Ma Ying-jeou’s administration feeling slighted as the omission of the word “national” might lead people to think the items came from Beijing’s Palace Museum. This prompted the Taipei museum to file a complaint about the errors with the Tokyo museum.

Tokyo museum director Masami Zeniya apologized for the errors on June 23, saying corrections have been made and that new posters would be posted.

Chow, however, had decided to cancel her trip despite original plans to merely delay her trip until after Tokyo has apologized. In her stead, Taiwan’s National Palace Museum director Feng Ming-chu went to Japan for the exhibition.

China Times Taiwan reported that the first lady decided to discard her Tokyo trip despite the apology in order to avoid any more possible put-downs by Japan during the visit. The move has received much criticism in light of the good diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The report further said that the move was 'peculiar' in terms of the international relations of Taiwan and Japan. Many commentators said the first lady’s cancelled trip was the Taiwanese president’s move to get in with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office director Zhang Zhijun, who arrived in Taiwan on June 25.

Relations between China and Japan have been increasingly strained following hightened disputes over contested territories in the East China Sea.

TagsTaiwan, Chow Mei-ching, Ma Ying-jeou’s, Tokyo National Museum, National Palace Musuem