Welcoming speech by Ambassador Kozuki Toyohisa on the occasion of the Reception in Honor of the Birthday of the Emperor of Japan

Ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for coming to today’s reception to celebrate the birthday of His Imperial Majesty Emperor. I would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank the Moscow Conservatory choir for their wonderful singing!

I am very pleased to be able to celebrate the eighty-fifth birthday of His Imperial Majesty together with you all. In January 2019, 30 years will have passed since his enthronement. However, His Majesty will be abdicating the throne next year on April 30 so this reception will be the last reception celebrating his birthday. On May 1, 2019 Crown Prince will take his father’s place on the throne.

2018 has been declared as “The Year of Japan in Russia” and “The Year of Russia in Japan” for the first time in the history of Japanese-Russian relations. More than 400 projects are currently taking place throughout Russia. For example, the Masterpieces of Japanese Painting and Engravings of the Edo Era Exhibition attracted 120,000 (one hundred and twenty thousand) visitors, and the J-FEST Festival, a showcase of Japanese contemporary culture, had over 100,000 (one hundred thousand) people attending. Thanks to these events, the people of Russia got to see a side of Japan that they had never seen before. “Yabusame” – the Japanese art of archery on horseback – also came to Russia for the first time. That image of a Japanese rider in a bright “samurai” outfit galloping through the Central Moscow Hippodrome with 13,000 (thirteen thousand) onlookers is one that I will never forget.

Economic cooperation between Japan and Russia is progressing at an unprecedented speed. In May 2016, Prime Minister Abe proposed to President Putin an “eight-point cooperation plan”. More than 150 projects have already been launched as a part of this plan, and in more than half of these projects we are seeing concrete action. The Cooperation Plan puts an emphasis on projects that aim to improve the quality of life of the Russian people in areas such as medicine, the urban environment and agriculture. These projects are centered on the series of challenges that President Putin outlined in the Executive Orders he signed in May.

Prime Minister Abe and President Putin share the strong will to resolve by themselves the issue of concluding a peace treaty by settling the territorial dispute, which remains unresolved more than 70 years since the end of the war. They have agreed that Prime Minister Abe will visit Russia early next year and President Putin will visit Japan for the G20 summit to be held in June next year.

I am confident that the year 2019 will be a very important milestone in the development of such relations between Japan and Russia. I ask for the full support and partnership of all those present here in ensuring the further development of Japanese-Russian relations.

Alexander Suvorov, Generalissimo of the Russian Empire in the 18th century, once said: "Sincerity of relations and truth in communication – that is friendship." I sincerely hope the coming year will unite all people involved in various areas of our bilateral relations as true friends.

Thank you for listening.