Turning 78 on Dec. 23, the Emperor is regarded as a supreme symbol for every Japanese citizen while his birthday, celebrated two weeks earlier to avoid inconvenient overlaps with Christmas and New Year festivities, serves as the country’s National Day. Unlike most diplomats from non-Arab countries, Yoshida performed his welcoming speech in Arabic as a sign of friendship and closeness to the country, proving a good fluency, a long dedication to the study of the language and a deep understanding of the local mentality.
Yoshida stressed on the important economic and cultural ties established between Japan and Saudi Arabia before and after the inauguration of official diplomatic relations in 1955.
“To date, Japan is the first importer from the Kingdom but also the fourth exporter and third investor in the Kingdom after the US and UAE,” explained Yoshida. “As concerns our cultural relations with Saudi Arabia, it’s enough to mention Japan’s participation as an official guest to the 26th edition of the Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture held in Riyadh last April.”
The first guest country from Asia invited to display its culture and heritage among Saudi Arabia’s most beautiful samples of arts and crafts, Japan displayed leading Japanese technologies and symbols of its traditional but also more modern culture that were fully appreciated by the 300,000 Saudis who visited.
In conclusion, Yoshida could not help but touch upon the grievous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Mar. 11, explaining how the help received in that moment of difficulty contributed to tightened bonds with the international community.
“In the process of recovery, many people from the world including Saudi people have extended warm hands to us. We really appreciate their heartfelt support and we’ll never forget their friendship and kindness.”
Yoshida explained that the economy of stricken areas in east Japan is recovering and assured that no agricultural or marine product currently circulating in the market is affected by radioactive emissions released from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which bore much of the brunt of the earthquake.
