Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) lightning visit to Japan to offer his condolences following the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe had the Japanese media lauding the gesture by the person they called “Taiwan’s pro-Japan second-in-command.”
Given the special circumstances of the visit, Lai was accorded far better treatment than was given to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who made a stopover in Japan on his way to the US in 1985.






