Reception for Emperor's Birthday

The Embassy of Japan celebrated His Majesty, the Emperor Akihito’s birthday on December 6, 2013 at Ambassador Eiichi Suzuki’s official residence. This significant occasion was attended by officials from the FSM National Government, Pohnpei State Government as well as the diplomatic corps, private sector, international community, and non-governmental organizations.

A short program opened the event and remarks were presented first by Ambassador Eiichi Suzuki in which he mentioned memorable occasions that were important milestones for the Government of Japan through government to government exchange as well as people to people. He continued to highlight several occasions such as the chartered flight from Kochi bringing tourists to the FSM, official visits between the Governments namely President Mori’s recent visit to Tokyo to attend the 25th Anniversary celebration of diplomatic relations between Japan and the FSM where he also held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Deputy Secretary of the FSM Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samson Pretrick represented the FSM Government. In his remarks, he touched on the various assistances that the Government of Japan has provided for the FSM Government through technical assistance, Grassroots Human Security Projects, grant aid, scholarships, and other development assistance. The newest assistance is the achievement of FSM being among several countries recently selected for the Non-Project Grant Aid for Provision of Industrial Products.

On the whole, the event was a great success and the guests enjoyed the delicious yakitori, or Japanese-style chicken barbeque on bamboo sticks, and buffet of various types of food prepared by Ambassador Suzuki’s Japanese chef.

Emperor Akihito is the 125th Emperor of Japan and acceded the throne on January 7th, 1989 upon the demise of Emperor Hirohito. Emperor will turn 80 on December 23rd, 2013 and to this day is very active in his official duties.