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TOKYO - Taiwan's former president Lee Teng-hui arrived in Japan on Friday for a week-long stay, after his previous visits angered Beijing, which considers the island a renegade province.
The visit is the fifth by Japan-educated Lee, 86, since he stepped down as president nine years ago. During his 1988-2000 term, he nurtured democracy and tried to promote a separate identity for Taiwan.
Each of Lee's Japan trips triggered protests from China's communist government, which sees such visits as attempts to strengthen Taiwan's status, although the complaints have grown less vehement.
Japan does not require visas for Taiwan tourists and says the visit is private.
Lee, wearing a grey suit, arrived at Narita airport near Tokyo accompanied by his wife and was heavily guarded by security officers. He was greeted by a small group of supporters waving the flags of Japan and Taiwan.
On Saturday, Lee plans to deliver a speech in Tokyo on Japanese society. He is then due to fly to Kochi and Kumamoto in southern Japan to deepen ties with business groups before heading back to Taiwan next Thursday.
On a visit to Japan last year, Lee angered China when he said that an island group disputed between Japan, Taiwan and China "is a territory of Japan."
The archipelago in the East China Sea is known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, as Tiaoyutai in Taiwan and as Diaoyu in China.
"The land of the Senkaku Islands belongs to Okinawa, therefore it is a territory of Japan," Lee said in an interview carried in the Okinawa Times in southern Japan.
China conducted missile tests in waters surrounding Taiwan in 1995 and 1996 in response to what it called Lee's attempts to "split the motherland."
During his Japan visit in 2007, Lee mourned his late brother at Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni war shrine, ignoring protests by China which had demanded Japan curb his activities.
The Shinto shrine venerates those who died in wars while fighting for Japan, including convicted war criminals from World War II.
Lee's elder brother is enshrined at Yasukuni because he died serving in the Japanese navy in the Philippines in February 1945 when Taiwan was a Japanese colony.
Lee, echoing the views of many Japanese conservatives, criticised China for making the shrine a political issue.
Tokyo switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1972 and has since barred official contact with Taiwan.
- AFP/ir
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