CHING CHIA-SHOU FLASHES HIS PASSPORT OUTSIDE JAPANESE REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN TAIPEI, 2001-03-05 (photo)

Ching Chia-shou, a member of the Taipei county council, flashes his passport outside Japan's heavily guarded quasi embassy in Taipei March 5, 2001, demanding Tokyo issue him a visa. Ching argued that if Japan can ban him from entering, the Taiwan government has every right to declare Japanese author Kobayashi Yoshinori persona non grata because of Kobayashi's comic book "On Taiwan" depreciate of Taiwan comfort women as volunteering to be sex workers during World War II. Japan blacklisted Ching for setting foot on a group of disputed islands claimed by Beijing, Tokyo and Taipei in the East China Sea in 1997. SK/DL