Marking 80th Anniversary of Battle of Imphal at Seminar in Tokyo
【Photo Diary】 (1) Visit to Malaysia [2024/10/02]
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I would like to share with you some of the photographs taken during my visit to Malaysia from August 31 to September 4, 2024, in my capacity as chairman of The Nippon Foundation. During my stay in the southeast Asian country, I first visited the Gunung Apeng National Park to join Japanese student volunteers dispatched by The Nippon Foundation Volunteer Center and the Japan Malaysia Association (JMA) under a reforestation project to rejuvenate critical orangutan habitat. Under the “Orangutan Forest Restoration Project,” launched in November 2023, we plan to send groups of 15 students for two weeks, four times a year, aiming to plant a total of 100,000 trees over a decade in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, home to the world’s largest protected orangutan population. I then moved on to the capital Kuala Lumpur to meet with government officials and foreign diplomats stationed there to discuss how Malaysia, as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) chair in 2025, should address various issues, including the situation in Myanmar. [September 1, Kuching and Serian, Malaysia]  It took about two hours to travel by a four-wheel-drive vehicle from Kuching, the capital of the state of Sarawak in eastern Malaysia, to the Gunung Apeng National Park in Serian.  Oil palm trees are seen all around. Tropical rainforests are shrinking due to the expansion of plantations of oil palms, the source of palm oil. As a result, many living creatures, including orangutans, are losing their habitat.  Arriving in the area of forest where Japanese student volunteers are planting trees under the “Orangutan Forest Restoration Project.”  I planted a few trees myself. The clay soil was hard and required considerable physical strength to dig. Unlike Japanese shovels, the blade was narrow and sharp, and it had to be driven into the clay soil many times.  With the fourth group of Japanese student volunteers dispatched under the project. To date, about 10,000 trees have been planted in collaboration with Malaysian students. I sincerely hope that orangutans will come back to the area someday as the trees planted by the students grow and the project rejuvenates the forest.  In 10 years’ time, the seedling in my hand will grow into a big tree like the one next to me.  These seeds will grow into Borneo Ironwood, a tree that can reach 50 meters in height and live for over 1,000 years.  Having lunch with student volunteers. About 60% of them were travelling abroad for the first time, they told me, adding that young Japanese cannot go overseas for economic reasons, even though they want to.  With Ms. Kazue Sakai, who serves as a coordinator for the Japanese student volunteers under the project. One of some 120 Japanese living in Sarawak, she has resided in the state for more than 50 years and is known among the other Japanese as the “Mother of Sarawak.”  A colorful assortment of fruit was served with lunch.  Visiting a nearby village where we buy seedlings for our planting project. Right behind me is Indonesia. (To be continued) |