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RI, Japan rely on youth for future ties

Good friends: Indonesian special envoy for Japanese investment Rachmat Gobel (left), Foreign Ministry Director General for Asia-Pacific and African Affairs Desra Percaya (center) and Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii hold hands during a press conference in Jakarta on Sunday

Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, December 18, 2017

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RI, Japan rely on youth for future ties

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span class="inline inline-center">Good friends: Indonesian special envoy for Japanese investment Rachmat Gobel (left), Foreign Ministry Director General for Asia-Pacific and African Affairs Desra Percaya (center) and Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii hold hands during a press conference in Jakarta on Sunday. A series of events have been arranged for next year, when the two countries will mark their 60th year of relations.(JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

Japan and Indonesia are relying on the youth to ensure continued cooperation for the mutual benefit of future generations.

“The friendly ties nurtured by the current generation would ensure cooperation for the mutual benefit of future generations,” Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii said on Sunday.

Ishii was speaking at a joint press conference with Rachmat Gobel, the presidential special envoy for Japan, ahead of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations next year.

The opening ceremony will be held in Jakarta on Jan. 20 together with the anniversary that will mark six decades since Indonesia and Japan signed the Treaty of Peace.

Under the tagline “Work Together, Walk Together,” Ishii said the anniversary was more than a celebration, it was also to make sure that the partnership would be continued for the next 60 years.

“For instance, at the 2045 Project seminar, Japanese experts will consider how we can contribute to Indonesia’s 100 years of independence,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rachmat said next year’s event is aimed at showing the younger generation that the 60 years of friendly and mutually beneficial relations between the two countries were the result of hard work by past and current generations.

“It can be called a diamond anniversary, and I hope the future generation can continue to polish this diamond, so it will never lose its shine” he said.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry will call for an exchange of correspondence between Indonesian and Japanese elementary and junior high school students in February to start communications between the future
generations.

Other activities will include soccer matches, cultural festivals and television programs.

Various programs about the history of bilateral relations and experiences of living in Japan will be broadcast on several national television stations in 2018.

Indonesia and Japan will also play a soccer friendly in January, while cultural festivals will be held in West Sumatra and Riau in March and April, respectively.

A series of events, including a symposium and flower festivals, is also planned at the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo and consulate general offices in Mainichi and Hokkaido.

Bilateral ties between the two countries have been strengthened over the years.

In terms of investment, Japan is Indonesia’s second-biggest investor and one of its main trade partners with the total investment reaching US$5.4 billion in 2016.

The ministry’s director general for Asia, Pacific and Africa Affairs, Desra Percaya, said the two countries had been cooperating not only in the field of the economy, politics and security, but also in people-to-people exchanges.

“We have sent 2,116 nurses and caregivers to work in Japan,” he said.

In November, the Japanese Embassy named a man from Ngawi, East Java, as the winner of the 60th anniversary logo design contest that will be used to celebrate the anniversary of diplomatic relations next year.

The logo combined red and white, which are the colors of the Indonesian and Japanese flags, as well as the Indonesian traditional puppet, Wayang, and Japan’s famous Sakura flower.

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