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The Japan Foundation Awards / Special Prizes (2002) - Ceremony and Reception
Opening Address: Hiroaki Fujii, President, The Japan Foundation
I
am exceedingly pleased to have the honor of announcing that T.I.H. the
Crown Prince and Princess are in attendance today for this ceremony. We
are also honored by the presence of H.I.H. Prince Takamado, who has worked
assiduously alongside us for many years, and H.I.H. Princess Takamado,
as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoriko Kawaguchi.
I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you here today
for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this award ceremony
for The Japan Foundation Awards and the Japan Foundation Special Prizes.
Due to your kind support, the Japan Foundation is celebrating its 30th anniversary
this year.
This years also marks the 30th occasion on which The Japan Foundation Awards
and the Japan Foundation Special Prizes have been given. With your kind cooperation,
this year as always, recommendations were received from a large number of
people. These nominations were screened by a selection committee of nine
members, as a result of which, two individuals were chosen to receive of
the Japan Foundation Award and three groups, the Japan Foundation Special
Prizes. I wish to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt gratitude
to all those from all over the world in all fields of endeavor who cooperated
in submitting recommendations for a broad range of nominees. And I also wish
to express my thanks to Chairman Yoneo Ishii and all the other members of
the selection committee.
It is thanks to the support and unstinting efforts of numerous people in
all parts of the world, including those who receive these awards today, that
the Japan Foundation has been able to continue its promotion of international
cultural exchange for these past 30th years. Today we are honored with the
presence of many past recipients of these awards, and we are particularly
pleased to be able to celebrate this occasion together with them.
In
this midst of the present extreme unrest in the world, there is an increasing
need for a strengthening of solidarity among the peoples of the world on
levels that cannot be sufficiently supported by the coexistence of disparate
cultures and politics alone. In the special issue of the magazine Kokusai
Koryu that we have passed out to all of you today, there is a strong sense
of a broad range of ideas and proposals for effecting the search for future
international cultural exchange as we enter an age of global multicultural
coexistence. In its pages, I myself wrote that cultural exchange requires
long-term efforts, similar to those necessary for growing trees and creating
forests. And we at the Japan Foundation sincerely hope to obtain the guidance,
support, and cooperation of all groups and individuals involved in international
cultural exchange in terms of solidarity and cooperation in the new age in
our continued long-term efforts toward forming links among "people" for
the purpose of nurturing "people."
In closing, I wish to offer my hope for the continued and increasing future
development of all those past and present recipients of these awards who
are in attendance today.
Thank you very much.