On the eve of the first election of the Taipei mayor in 1994, then ROC president Lee Teng-hui, in an interview with the Japanese writer Ryotaro Shiba, lamented "the tragedy of being born Taiwanese." Public opinion skewered him for shaming the nation's honor by saying that he once considered himself Japanese.
1994 年底台北市首次市長選舉前夕，時任中華民國總統的李登輝接受日本作家司馬遼太郎訪問時，感嘆「生為台灣人的悲哀」，遭輿論撻伐其以「曾為日本人自居」，實在有辱國家的尊嚴。