Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) Japan's top envoy to Taiwan on Thursday praised the "best-ever" Tokyo-Taipei relations and said the two neighbors have become "irreplaceable partners" over the past five decades, despite the lack of official diplomatic ties.Speaking during an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association (JTEA), the country's de facto embassy in Taiwan in the absence of official relations, Hiroyasu Izumi said the past five decades "was not an easy journey at all."The association was established in 1972 to serve as a de facto embassy after Japan severed ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and recognized the People's Republic of China.In a public opinion poll conducted by the association earlier this year in Taiwan, 77 percent of Taiwanese said they felt a sense of familiarity with Japan, while in a similar survey conducted last year in Japan, 76 percent of respondents said they felt a strong affinity with Taiwan, according to Izumi.Meanwhile, Theodore Huang (黃茂雄), acting head of the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association (TJRA), the Taiwanese counterpart of the JTEA, noted in his address that he was personally involved in founding the TJRA, formerly known as the Association of East Asian Relations, which was established at the same time as the JTEA."