The Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia, H.E. Mr. Hiroyuki Kishino stated that the Third Annual Japan Festival promoted lively grassroots people-to-people exchanges between Japanese and Ethiopians. The theme of this year’s festival was “One for All, All for One”.

The Festival was co-organized by the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and was held at the Juventus Club on 14 January 2012.

“This is a fun, enjoyable and exciting event, where Japanese and Ethiopian people can get to know each other, and talk about life, culture and development together,” Ambassador Kishino added.

His Excellency further called upon participants to ask questions, collect information, and dance and sing together, during the event.

The major objective of this Festival was to deepen the understanding of Japanese development assistance towards Ethiopia in education, water resource development and agriculture as well as promoting Japanese culture such as Kimono (Japanese traditional dress) Shodo (Japanese way of writing), songs and dance.

In addition to these, there were also booths focusing on the 3.11 tsunami and earthquake, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.    

Another focus of the event was for the Japanese people to express their thanks to the Ethiopian people and the international community for their generous encouragement and assistance provided to Japan following the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.  

The Ethio-Japan bilateral ties are expanding from time to time. The Government of Japan has reformed its ties with Ethiopia in accordance with the country's comprehensive five-year national Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP).