As a Harvard law school student, Ma took an active part in an anti-Japanese movement to defend Taiwan's sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands, contested by Japan. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the eight uninhabited isles, known as the Senkakus in Japanese.

Ma's stereotyped image lingered until after he was elected president last year.

"That image is being changed," says Kazuhira Ogura, president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Taipei.

Few businesspeople now consider Ma an anti-Japanese activist, Ogura points out. Ma's pro-Japan policy, he adds, has helped make the change of his image for the better. The burgeoning detente between Taiwan and China has also helped.

"So much so that Japanese are now coming to know Taiwan under Ma's leadership will be of help to their business ventures in China," says Ogura, chairman of the Mitsubishi Corporation in Taiwan.

Medium-sized and small businesses, in particular, are eager to have partners in Taiwan for joint ventures in China, Ogura opines.

Should they operate alone in China, Ogura goes on, Japanese businesses have only a half-and-half chance of success.

"The chance of success goes up to 70 percent or more if they go to China as joint-venture businesses with Taiwan entrepreneurs," he emphasizes.

Their Taiwan partners know much better to cope with Chinese bureaucracy and are better accustomed to the way businesses are run on the mainland of China. It is easier for joint ventures to sail on an even keel.

That means Taiwan businesses attract more investment from Japan to start joint ventures in China. They need Japanese expertise, too.

"It's a mutually complementary operation, beneficial mutually to Taiwan and Japan," says Ogura, who has run the Taipei affiliate of one of the largest Japanese business conglomerate for 15 years.

Ogura never hesitates to advocate the Nippo-Taiwan joint venture business thrust into China. "It's a must, for the benefit of both Japan and Taiwan," he declares.

And the time is right. Taiwan is planning to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China early next year at the latest.

The ECFA, which Ogura's JCCI, along with the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, has urged the Ma administration to conclude as soon as practicable, will further boost Japanese investment for joint ventures in China with Taiwan partners. Without the ECFA, whose conclusion the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei also called for, Taiwan will have difficulty surviving the onslaught of the economic globalization.

Founded in 1971, the JCCI is instrumental in promoting economic relations between Taiwan and Japan. Altogether 420 Japanese business firms operating in Taiwan are its members. They include multinational giants as well as medium-sized and small businesses. On October 23, the JCCI issued a white paper calling for action on the part of the Taipei government to improve economic relations between Taiwan and Japan. The ECFA is at the top of its list of recommendations.

To those recommendations for improvement, the JCCI head adds a call for a better communication channel between Taiwan and Japan.

Mass media, Ogura regrets, have failed to provide sufficient information on Taiwan for the businesspeople in Japan. "Those of us who are here have all the news we need, but the vast majority of people in Japan simply do not know how Taiwan can be of use to them in getting more and better business done for the good of both, " he says.

Moreover, Ogura adds, more news from Taiwan will promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries. "The Japanese people have to know Taiwan is the best friend Japan has, and they need to be told of what's going on here every day," he concludes.

(By Joe Hong)