11 Nov 2019

Arts and culture are important tools for bringing nations together, says the Ambassador of Japan to Botswana, Kozo Takeda.

Speaking at the Japan culture festival hosted by the Japanese Embassy in collaboration with Young Africa Botswana (YBA) in Gaborone, Ambassador Takeda expressed gratitude for holding the cultural event that aimed to bring Botswana and Japan closer through art and culture.

He noted that this was the first Japan cultural festival aimed at introducing the Japanese culture to all generations of Botswana people.

“Japan is well known by its famous brands such as Toyota, Honda and Sony, but we also have rich culture and history,” said Takeda. He explained that through the cultural festival, Batswana would feel closer to Japan, be familiar with the basic information about Japan and its location.

He noted that learning each other’s cultures continued to strengthen the cooperation between Botswana and Japan. Japan had been extending cooperation projects such as technical cooperation, dispatching Japanese volunteers to primary schools, local government and NGOs, he said.

“Apart from such economic cooperation, this event was serving an enhanced interaction of people to people cooperation and we are hoping to make it an annual event in future,” he said.

Ambassador Takeda explained that the embassy would also hold Japan film festival from November 15-17 at River Walk mall in Gaborone. For her part, executive director for YAB, Jelena Mitrović said YAB was registered as a local trust in 2016 and its vision was to train the youth to create jobs for themselves and at the same time to put Botswana on the touristic map of Southern Africa.

The trust trains young people to create jobs for themselves in Africa’s most promising industries such as tourism, hospitality, ICT and creative industry.

Mitrović also explained that the festival would make the youth to learn about different cultures and create opportunities to apply for jobs internationally.

It would also make the youth aware of different Japanese programmes so that they could benefit from them, she said.

She said the event would also provide youth with the space to develop their talents and innovation skills, inspire their interest and passion as key elements to having successful careers. ENDS