Newsletter No. 965
News-Analysis
April 4, 2008

 

TWO RECENT JAPAN-ARAB EVENTS IN TOKYO

Here we will examine two events in Japanese relations with the Arab countries that have taken place domestically since the beginning of this year. They are the first celebration of “Arab Day” and the symposiums of the “Japan-Arab Women’s Dialogue.”

Arab Day

On the evening of March 25th a major diplomatic event was held at the Palace Hotel in Tokyo to celebrate “Arab Day.”

Someone (I don’t know exactly who) arranged to send me an invitation to the event. A small white envelope appeared in my university mailbox from “The Arab Diplomatic Corps” some weeks back. The invitation was issued in the name of “The Dean of the Arab Diplomatic Corps H. E. Mr. Reyad Ali Ahmed Al-Ansari, Ambassador of Qatar.” This was the first time for such a major celebration of Arab Day in Japan.

I would have liked to have attended, but I had an important meeting scheduled in Kitakyushu on that same day and in any case was planning to visit Tokyo in early March. My personal finances can’t justify two trips to Tokyo in the same month. Regretfully, then, I had to take a pass on this one.

Nevertheless, three sources (two written and one personal) have since given me basic accounts of what went on at the Arab Day event, and so I am now passing the information on to all of you.

I was told that over one thousand people were invited to the Arab Day event, of whom more than five hundred actually showed. The highest level Japanese guests were Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono, Yuriko Koike, Akiko Yamanaka, and Keiichiro Okabe, president of the Japan Arab Association.

Photo: Qatari Ambassador Al-Ansari and Speaker Yohei Kono in the Arab Tent
Source: Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Tokyo

Other guests included most of the Arab diplomatic community, Japanese businessmen, media people, and a few other academics like myself.

It seems that the event began with speeches and then moved on to a banquet. The food consisted of many national dishes contributed by each of the Arab embassies, and was apparently quite delicious.

I gather that the other guests included the Japanese calligrapher Koichi Honda (profiled in Shingetsu Newsletter No. 681) and the Arabic musical group of Yoshiko Matsuda (interviewed in Shingetsu Newsletter No. 900). One Japanese-language account says that Iraqi Ambassador Ghanim Alwan Al-Jumaily suggested in passing that an Arabic calligraphy event should be held in Japan at some point. The Saudi Embassy seems to have been responsible for providing the Arab tent in which Qatari Ambassador Al-Ansari and Yohei Kono shared cups of Arab coffee and dates.

Yuriko Koike, with her fluent Arabic and a person whose name is being widely floated as a possible dark horse prime ministerial candidate should Taro Aso stumble, was apparently thronged by well-wishers.

It sounds like the event ended pretty quickly. Many of the high-profile guests put in an appearance, and then shuffled off to elsewhere. The entire event was only two hours long, and by 8:30 pm the hall was quickly emptying as the guests departed in small groups.

As best as I can tell from the distance of Kitakyushu, that was the nature of the first Arab Day celebration in Tokyo.

Japan-Arab Women’s Dialogue

According to MOFA, this dialogue consisted of two symposiums in late January. The first was held in Tokyo on January 27th and the second in Osaka on the 31st. The female Arab participants came from Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories.

Unlike the much larger “Arab Day” event, we don’t have any particular details about the tone of this event. We must rely on the usual bare-bones Japanese-language MOFA account. We do know, however, that MOFA Vice-Minister Osamu Uno dropped by the Tokyo symposium to pay his respects to the guests.