A group of Taiwanese and Japanese are petitioning for Taiwan’s name to be used at the Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Games.
Taiwan has only been able to compete in the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei” and is not allowed to use its national flag or anthem.
This is the result of a compromise reached in the late 1970s after China refused to let Taiwan compete independently at the 1976 Montreal Games.
Members and supporters of the Taiwan 2020 Tokyo movement want to change this. They gathered at a convention in Tokyo on March 24 to collect signatures for their petition.
Satoru Mizushima, lead organizer, said a few thousand signatures have already been collected.
“Taiwan is simply Taiwan, and China is China, an equally important country. Anyone, whether be it a high-schooler or an adult, should think it’s absurd that the name “Chinese (Taipei)” is being used,” said Wataru Fujihira, a retiree who signed the petition.
Organizers are shooting for 1 million signatures. The petition will then be handed to the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan government.
Members of the Taiwan Radical Wings Party and the Democratic Progressive Party, were also involved in the petition, and they helped to draw up support in Japan.
Taiwan is an independently governed island. However, the Chinese government views it as a breakaway province of China. The two sides split after the Chinese civil war in 1949.
