I am very pleased to contribute my message to this column to celebrate His Majesty the Emperor Akihito's 83rd Birthday. On the 23rd of December 2016, His Majesty will be 83 years old. The Imperial House of Japan is one of the oldest monarchies in the world with the long history of about 2,700 years.
And His Majesty the Emperor Akihito is the 125th Emperor of Japan, the latest in the oldest continuing line of hereditary monarchy in the world. Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress have travelled many countries promoting friendship and goodwill among different nations of the world. Their Majesties visited Pakistan in 1962 as then Crown Prince and Princess.
I came to Pakistan for the first time On 30th of June 1985 and landed in Karachi. During that time, even though Pakistan had assemblies and civilian governments but still Pakistan was under martial law. With the passage of time, now full-fledged democracy has prevailed in Pakistan. I hope the democracy takes root solidly in Pakistan.
From 1985 to 1987 I was assigned by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as prospective diplomat to specialise in Urdu Language and Pakistani Affairs by learning Urdu language, gaining the knowledge of Pakistani society and building my own network in Pakistan for a harmonious relationship between Pakistan and Japan in future.
After my training ended I was posted for four times in Islamabad and this is my second posting in Karachi. I have served Pakistan for more than 20 years in total and had the privilege to visit many cities and all the provinces in Pakistan. I have always been duly impressed by the creativity of a vibrant civil society and in particular by the young people I met with. In future also I plan to strengthen the cordial relations between Pakistan and Japan as it has always been my utmost priority.
The friendly relationship between the two countries is mainly centered on economic field. Pakistan and Japan enjoy strong and cordial economic and trade relationships which have been further strengthened over the last decades. At present, more than 80 Japanese companies are operating in Pakistan. The areas of Japanese investments in Pakistan widely range from automobile and motorcycle industries, steel mills, chemical industries, pharmaceutical industries to zipper manufacturers. We expect that more Japanese companies will come to invest in Pakistan in coming years.
As far as economic cooperation is concerned, Japan started Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Pakistan from 1954 and Pakistan has been always one of our focusing countries. Now I would like to introduce some memorable on Japanese ODA projects to Pakistani people to show mentioned below.
1. Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project
2. Indus Highway and Kohat tunnel
3. Construction Technology Training Institute Islamabad
4. Establishment of the Children's Hospital in Islamabad
5. Jamshoro Thermal power Project
These are just a few examples among many of our ODA Projects.
I hope by the publication of this message, Children Hospital in Karachi which was constructed by Japanese ODA, will be operational.
In addition to that, Japan has a scheme called "Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGP)" to support small-scale development projects to meet the basic human needs of the local people. Japan has granted more than 350 assistances to Pakistan through this scheme to date and the Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi has so far implemented 17 projects in the areas of health, sanitation, water supply and education since 2009.
The Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi has conducted various activities in 2016. In addition to the Emperor's Birthday Reception on December 6th, we organised Japanese Calendar Exhibition, Japan Fest with, Koto and Shamisen Concert and Japanese Film Festival, etc.
Furthermore, I would like to highlight the activities done by Our Information and Culture Center (JICC) The JICC has a library, an exhibition hall and a reading room for Pakistani people to know more about Japan. We regularly organise various cultural events such as film shows, exhibitions, flower arrangement workshops, etc at the Center. We also issue "Japan Information Bulletin" three times a year to inform about frequent activities of our Embassy in Islamabad and of Consulate General of Japan in Karachi. We also have "Niponica", a magazine about Japanese culture and other publications available at the Center. The door of JICC is always open to welcome every Pakistani. I hope many people will visit JICC and utilise the facilities to know more about Japan.
In Karachi, we have many Japan-related organisations like PJCA, PJBF, Ikebana groups, Bonsai Association, Karate groups, Judo groups, Pop culture groups etc to which we are grateful for as they have always co-operated with us for enhancing friendly ties between japan and Pakistan in various aspects.
Through this message I take the opportunity to renew the appreciation of the Japanese community for the hospitability of the Pakistani People. I wish the economic relations, cultural interchange and people-to-people exchange between Japan and Pakistan will be further promoted with cooperation of Pakistani people including Japan-related groups and I, as the Consul-General of Japan in Karachi, will make every effort to achieve these goals.