Remarks in April 2007
Mr. Shigenobu Kato, Ambassador of Japan, delivered a speech at the opening of the Photo Exhibition “Scenes of Childhood: Sixty Years of Postwar Japan” at the University of Jordan on 4 April 2007
H.E. Professor Abdelrahim Hunaiti, President of the University of Jordan,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Government of Japan, it gives me the great honor to welcome you all here this morning to the Photo Exhibition under the title of “Scenes of Childhood: Sixty Years of Postwar Japan”.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to H.E. Professor Abdelrahim Hunaiti for His Excellency’s hospitality to host this exhibition at the University of Jordan as well as the Japanese Speech Contest that organized early March. I am very grateful for the President’s professional staff who has played a great role in the development of cultural activities and mutual understanding among us.
The evolution of Information Technology which Internet represents has definitely shortened a gap between nations. There is no gainsaying its advantages in communication and adding our stock of knowledge. Nevertheless, an encounter with a real thing still deserves praise and attention. The wild flowers in Iraq Al-Amir in the springtime, Ain Ghazal statues at the Archeological Museum, or the Roman Theatre in Amman downtown, those substantial charms of Amman attract visitors from foreign countries. Experiencing a non-virtual, real thing would indeed bridge nations and civilizations. In this perspective, I am honored with that Japan as a partner of the University of Jordan has participated in its efforts toward introducing foreign languages at the campus, which would exploit potential of the Hashemite Kingdom and contribute to the mutual understanding among people.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Embassy of Japan in Jordan organized Japanese cultural events for many years as part of its efforts to provide Jordanian people with an opportunity to touch authentic Japanese culture in various forms of art. The works in this photo exhibition are genuine art as well as real document of Japanese children for sixty years, dating from 1945, the end of the Second World War, to the present.
I myself was born in 1944. Looking back my career in the past sixty years, a thousand emotions crowd in on me. The scenes depicted in the photographs overlap my life, so that I can talk a lot about them. However, I am confident the photos would much rather talk to you.
To conclude my remarks, I would like to express my heartfelt wish that an encounter with the real scenes of childhood for sixty years of Japan will further enhance the mutual understanding between Japan and Jordan as well as make each of us a fresh determination that we have to work together to realize a better tomorrow for next generation.
Thank you.
For further inquiries | Back to top