Next stop on the tourism express: a tie-up between Japan’s ‘Happiness’ train station and ‘Love’ central in Taiwan
A Japan-Taiwan friendship association is promoting a partnership between two train stations to win the hearts of travellers and boost the economy
Negotiations are under way for the establishment of a partnership between two train stations, one in Japan and the other in Taiwan, in a bid to promote tourism between the two destinations.
The two stations attract tourists because of their names. One is in Obihiro, Hokkaido, and is named Kofuku which means “happiness” in Japanese, while the other is in Hexing and is popularly known as “Love” station, in the northern Taiwan county of Hsinchu.
Kofuku Station, a stop on the now defunct Japanese National Railways’ Hiroo Line between Obihiro and Hiroo on Japan's northernmost main island, was opened in 1956.
Combined with the line’s nearby station named “Aikoku”, Kofuku Station began to attract large numbers of tourists in the 1970s because of a promotional catchphrase “From Country of Love to Happiness” – “ai” and “koku” mean “love” and “country” in Japanese, respectively.
The Hiroo Line was shut down in 1987 and Kofuku Station is now under the management of the Obihiro city government. The station building and platform were renovated as a tourist attraction in November 2013.
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The number of tourists who visited the station in the April-September first half of fiscal 2015 soared 90.7 per cent from a year earlier to 129,100, including many foreign tourists, especially from Taiwan.