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Yohei Sasakawa
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Invited Guests from Overseas-Part 4 [2011年11月14日(Mon)]


Invited Guests from Overseas-Part 4
-Indian Parliamentarians-


The Japan-India Association was established by a group of distinguished figures of the time including Eichi Shibusawa, and it prides with a long history and celebrated its centenary some years ago. There has been a long period of stagnation in the bilateral relationship for a while, but the importance of the two countries to each other has been recognized anew in the recent years, and it is indeed satisfying to see that exchanges have spread in various sectors of society to promote mutual understanding.

As for myself, although I have visited India 43 times over the years to date, I feel that my activities have only now started to take shape.

The Sasakawa Peace Foundation has manifested its wisdom and powerful insight, and had started an exchange program of inviting Indian parliamentarians to Japan in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (equivalent to the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren).

Already more than 30 nonpartisan parliamentarians have visited Japan. They include such names as Rahul Ghandi, the son of Rajiv Ghandi, the ace of the Indian National Congress and a strongest candidate for premiership of India, and also parliamentarians who took office as the Minister of Defense and Minister of Railways after their visits to Japan. The politicians’ participation in this program seems to be becoming a gateway to success, and it is beginning to attract attention in the Indian political world.

6 young parliamentarians were invited this time and spent a busy few days in Japan including courtesy calls on former prime ministers Mori, Abe and Fukuda. I have been reported that the program was of excellent quality and satisfied the requests from the Indian side. The program included visits to The Indo-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Society, the Democratic Party of Japan, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Kansai Keidanren (Kansai Economic Federation), Tokyo Metropolitan Vocational Skills Development Center, TOYOTA, Yakult and other companies.

Rahul Ghandi was the first donor to the Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation. I also had the opportunity to meet and visit one of the past participants, Mr. Madhu Yaski of Andhra Pradesh, this September. He accompanied me to the leprosy colony in his constituency of Nizamabad and furthermore, promised that he would cooperate in the establishment of the parliamentarian’s group in support of leprosy activities in India.

The parliamentarians visiting Japan come from different parts of India such as Bihar, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh among others where I have visited a number of times for my work of leprosy elimination, and it is encouraging to know that I will be able to receive valuable advice for my future work.

“You never know what the tide will bring!”
These are the words that Ryoichi Sasakawa often uttered. It means that unexpected events can develop into favorable direction.

Recently, a book written by Miyoko Kudo, “Kujikete narumonoka”- Sasakawa Ryoichi ga Gendai ni Hanatsu Keiku 80” (“I shall never ever be dispirited – Ryoichi Sasakawa” - 80 epigrams for the contemporary man) was published.

I recommend this book to those who are interested, but with apologies that it is only available in Japanese.
Posted by Y.Sasakawa at 09:00 | URL | comment(0)
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