After his inauguration ceremony on Monday, Taiwan's new president held a lunch meeting with a Japanese parliamentary group that promotes exchanges between Japan and Taiwan.

Lai Ching-te met with about 30 members of the Japanese nonpartisan group led by main ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Furuya Keiji.

Lai said Taiwan has cooperated with Japan, particularly in the areas of natural disaster response and infectious disease control, believing that true friendship is shown in times of crisis.

He said his administration has kicked off, and he called on the group to continue cooperating with Taiwan and the new government.

Furuya referred to the mutual expressions of sympathy and donations after the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day in Japan and the powerful quake off eastern Taiwan on April 3.

He said the exchanges are a symbol of their true bond and pledged to strengthen ties with Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao reacted sharply to the Japanese group's attendance to the inauguration ceremony.

Wu on Monday invited about a dozen Japanese politicians and scholars to a forum at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. The ambassador told them that the group's visit to Taiwan sends a very wrong political signal by publicly supporting those who he calls "Taiwan independence separatists."