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  Ambassador's Speech>2011 >110224    
     
 
Remarks by H.E. Hiroyuki Kishino, Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia
 
   
    on the Occasion of the Hina-matsuri Festival
on 24 February, 2011		    
    Your Excellency, Ato Amin Abdulkadir, Minister of Culture and Tourism,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Evening.  Endemen ameshachehu.

It is a great pleasure for me to host this Girls’ Day Hina-matsuri Festival at my residence.  3 March is the day we traditionally celebrate girls’ sound growth in Japan, displaying hina dolls on the stage and enjoying spring dishes.  I have never missed this ceremony myself as a father of two daughters in Tokyo.  Indeed, this is one of the activities that my predecessor highly recommended me to continue to host.  So I have done so, being fully aware of the importance of this sort of cultural activity.  It provides a good opportunity to deepen mutual understanding and to promote grassroots exchanges between Japanese and Ethiopian people.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

For this year’s celebration, we have arranged a mini piano concert, by inviting Ato Girma Yifrashewa, a well known Ethiopian pianist, very active on the international stage.  He will play Japanese, Ethiopian and classical piano music for us to enjoy, by comparing our cultures.  This is the main program this evening.

This year I am grateful to Your Excellency, Ato Amin Abdulkadir, Minister of Culture and Tourism, for joining us in this event.  Later on, I would like to ask Your Excellency to say a few words.

This year I have also put a slight emphasis on those who used to study or serve in Japan, in the hope that they have a chance to remember their days in Japan, whether it was a few years ago, ten years ago or even thirty years ago.  Whether young or senior, to my pleasure, they are with us here this evening, beyond nationality and irrespective of rank.

In this context, I think there will be an announcement about the establishment of an Alumni Society.  Now, may I introduce Dr. Solomon from the first generation of Monbusho scholarship students and currently Associate Professor at Addis Ababa University?