H.E. Mr. Hidehisa Horinouchi, Ambassador of Japan to Cambodia. Photo supplied
Chum Reap Suo!
It is my great pleasure to be sharing this message with the Cambodian people on this special occasion; the 65th anniversary year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Cambodia. On 9 January, 1953, our governments both confirmed their willingness to establish diplomatic relations between our two nations. Since then, our people have built, and nurtured, trust and a strong friendship through exchange programs and cooperation across various fields.
Recently, we have seen our relationship developing even more rapidly. This has been demonstrated by the growing number of Japanese investments in Cambodia and the remarkable 50 percent increase in the number of Cambodian visitors to Japan following ANA’s commencement of direct flights between Tokyo/Narita and Phnom Penh in 2016.
During this memorable anniversary year, the Embassy of Japan, in cooperation with the Royal Government of Cambodia and multiple Cambodian and Japanese organizations, will organize many exchange events in Cambodia. Of these events, our annual KIZUNA Festival will be the biggest. It will be held on 22-25 February at the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC) and this year’s theme will be “Beat of Japan”. The festival will include many kinds of music concert; Japanese traditional “Gagaku” music, rock music performed with traditional instruments, anime songs and pop music, as well as many other cultural and educational events.
I would also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone who commented on my “60 seconds from the Japanese Ambassador” Khmer speech video, which was posted on the Embassy’s Facebook page. I will continue to produce similar videos in order to inform you of our activities and introduce you to more of our culture.
I sincerely hope that many Cambodian people will enjoy these Japanese events and future events and that these will further strengthen the friendship between Japan and Cambodia.
We look forward to seeing you at the KIZUNA Festival and many events held in this anniversary year!
