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| Dr al-Sada and Ambassador Monji cut the cake at the celebrations |
“The events are to be held under the project ‘Japan-Qatar 2012’ to further promote our excellent relations,” Japanese Ambassador Kenjiro Monji said.
He was speaking at a reception at his residence on Wednesday, to celebrate the 78th birthday of the emperor of Japan, which is also regarded as the National Day of Japan.
Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry, HE Dr Mohamed Saleh al-Sada, who was the guest of honour, and Monji cut a cake on the occasion.
The reception was attended by a large number of dignitaries including diplomats, senior officials from government and private sector as well as members of the Japanese community in Qatar.
The Japanese ambassador expressed gratitude to Qatar for assisting Japan in its most difficult time after the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.
“Qatar’s support was one of the largest in the world with the reconstruction assistance of $100mn on the initiative of the Emir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and the agreement to provide the additional supply of a huge amount of LNG and LPG.”
The envoy recalled that people in Qatar, both Qataris and of various nationalities, also made donations to support the victims of the disaster.
Although difficulties still remain, the ambassador said that the Japanese economy and the affected areas are well on the path toward recovery and the nuclear power accident is now under control.
“In spring, some time after the disaster, we were all touched to see survived cherry trees in full bloom amongst the debris, lifting up the spirit of Japanese people. As the world expects, Japan and Japanese people will rise again solidly as those cherry blossoms,” he added.
