By: NOKE Masaki,
Ambassador of Japan to Egypt
Today, on February 23, we celebrate the 61st birthday for His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. On this auspicious occasion, I am very delighted to share our joy with the Egyptian friends.
The Japanese Imperial Family is known to be the oldest continuing imperial or royal family in the world, and inherits the traditional Japanese culture that has been preserved for more than 2000 years.
Exactly 100 years from this year, in April 1921, the grandfather of His Majesty (Naruhito), Emperor Showa (Hirohito), stopped by Egypt on his way to Europe as Crown Prince at that time, visited the pyramids, and paid a courtesy call to His Majesty King Fouad I.
As for His Majesty the Emperor, He (then Crown Prince) warmly received His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El Sisi at the imperial palace and held an official lunch during His visit to Japan in 2016. The Japanese Imperial Family has been playing a significant role in our history of exchange and goodwill, which is one its important duties.
The ties between Japan and Egypt have grown very firm through enormous efforts made by our pioneers. Our relations gained new momentum thanks to the historic two visits by President Sisi to Japan in 2019. This positive trend was underlined by the announcement of President Sisi September last year that the new campus of E-JUST (Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology) and the roads in Nasr City will be named after former Japanese Prime Minister ABE Shinzo.
This year marks the 85th anniversary of Japan’s opening of the embassy in Cairo in 1936 as the first diplomatic mission. And looking forward, huge opportunities lies ahead of our two countries to further boost relationship, with two big events planned this year: the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) and the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The Grand Egyptian Museum is often called as a “gift from Egypt to the world,” and will be truly the “treasure (GEM)” of the world. Japan is honoured to be part of the project to construct this museum through offering a loan of about 84 billion yen (about 800 million dollars) and technical co-operation for the preservation and restoration of relics, and restoration of the second “solar ship.” We hope GEM will attract many tourists and become a monument of Japan-Egypt co-operation.
Japan is preparing for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, making utmost efforts to lead the Games to a great success as a proof that humankind has overcome the corona virus crisis. In this connection, we are largely encouraged by Egypt’s great success in the World Men’s Handball Championship in January this year with thorough infection prevention measures.
I hope that our descendants will look back this special year with appreciation as the beginning of a new golden age in Japan-Egypt relations. To this end, I will spare no efforts, working hand in hand with our Egyptian friends.
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