The Chat of Ambassador

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Highway and Classic music (No.6)

The highways in Belgium are toll free. This is very surprising and also very pleasant for Japanese people who are accustomed to expensive highway fees. On weekends, I end up paying expensive gasoline fees for long distance-drives. However, the highway is not always free in all European countries. In addition to the three Benelux countries, only Germany and the Scandinavian countries (except Norway) have toll free highways. There is also no speed limit on the German highways, but this is an exception. The speed limits of most countries are limited to 120-130 km/h, but some countries are very strict such as Norway with a speed limit of 90 km/h. I already talked about drunk driving in my second Ambassador’s Chat. According to the Belgian Road Traffic Law, the limit for driving under the influence of alcohol is its concentration of more than 0.25 mg per liter exhaled air. This is a generous legal limit compared to the Japanese limit (more than 0.15 mg/l). By the way, the most lenient country for driving under the influence of alcohol is Britain with a limit of 0.35 mg per liter. On the other hand, some Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania have the strictest policy and driving under the influence of alcohol is totally forbidden. However, the limit in most countries is set at 0.25 mg/l. Overall, European countries tend to be more tolerant for drunk driving than Japan.
 

＜ Two New Year Receptions ＞

Last week 8th of January, I held a New Year Reception at the Ambassador’s Residence for the representatives of the Japanese society in Belgium. The number of Japanese people who submit a residence report to the Embassy amounts to around 5300, so it is difficult to invite all of them. Therefore, we are obliged to limit the number of guests to basically the representatives of the companies belonging to Nihonjinkai (Japan Society). About 100 people attended the reception. However, as it is a New Year reception, I wanted to welcome the guests with Osechi (Japanese traditional cuisine for the New Year). I myself went to Paris to buy Japanese food and asked a diplomat who happened to return to Japan to procure some food for the reception. Thanks to that, I am sure that the guests enjoyed the Japanese New Year’s cuisine. Especially the “sweet red-bean soup with rice‐flour dumplings” made with adzuki beans from Hokkaido was a public favourite. To create a New Year’s atmosphere, I asked a teacher of the Ohara school to create a New Year’s Ikebana flower arrangement at the entrance and I also arranged for an ensemble of Japanese female musicians playing koto and clarinet. “Spring Sea” composed by Miyagi Michio is perfect for the New Year. However, while I was hosting a pleasant reception I suddenly thought that we ought to reconsider this New Year’s reception, because times have changed and are different from the “New Year’s Reception at the Embassy” in the old days when people could only go to foreign countries by boat and the society of Japanese residents was much smaller. Nowadays, many people spend New Year’s in Japan before returning to Brussels. I would like to think it over for next year.

The next day, on the 9th of January, His Majesty King Albert II and Her Majesty Queen Paola hosted a New Year Reception at the Royal Palace. It must have been very hard for His Majesty King Albert II to greet the ambassadors and their spouses one by one in turn, because almost all 170 ambassadors dispatched to Belgium and their spouses attended this reception. After greeting, we moved to another room for the cocktail party and Ambassadors had the honour to talk with His Majesty King Albert II, Her Majesty Queen Paola, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Philippe and Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde. I talked with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Philippe about the Belgian Economic Mission to Japan last June led by the Crown Prince himself and also talked with Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde about Japanese cuisine. Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde likes to drink Japanese tea and she was glad that Japanese green tea is very healthy. His Majesty King Albert II is officially called ”King of the Belgians” and at the reception I could feel that he strives to be close to the people.
 

＜The two Royal Academies of Music of Brussels＞

In the world’s major cities, there are vocational schools called “Conservatories” to nurture classical musicians. I think that the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, founded in 1832, must be one of the oldest of such educational institutions. However, this Music Academy is also separated according to language into a French and Dutch Conservatory, similar to other educational institutes. Last week I visited the Dutch Conservatorium. The Director Peter SWINNEN is a very friendly man. Being himself a composer, he seemed very interested in the Japanese works. I heard that there are about 600 students at this Conservatory, among which nearly 60% are foreign students (13 are Japanese). There are Japanese professors as well in the department of Violin and Piano (the professor in the department of Violin is Mrs. Yuzuko HORIGOME, which you might have heard of).

Last December, I went to the French Conservatoire (It’s located in the same building, divided in a right and left wing). According to the Director Frédéric de Roos, about 700 students attend the school, among which two-thirds are foreign students. Therefore, the number of students in the French Conservatoire is slightly higher than in the Dutch Conservatorium. There are 11 Japanese students and also here there are Japanese teachers in the department of Vocal Music and Piano. I was surprised by the vast library collection that both Conservatories share. The library is a separate entire 5-story building. The Director explained to me proudly that, if we put all books next to each other, they would reach more than 10 km and that this library is probably one of the biggest in the world. Upon leaving, I told him that I had the impression that the school building was getting old. The Director told me that they were planning a complete renovation, but that it is difficult to balance preservation and renovation because the building is registered as a historical building.
 

＜ Successive Courtesy Calls to Belgian Politicians ＞

At the beginning of the New Year, I visited Mr. Francois-Xavier de Donnéa, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs at the House of Representatives. It was a late courtesy call upon taking up my post. Mr. de Donnéa is a politician with a career of more than 30 years and is currently a member of the Walloon (French-speaking region) liberal party MR. He held important positions in major companies in the economic world as well. During our meeting, he showed a strong interest in the future of nuclear power plants and he asked me about Japan’s energy policy after the Fukushima accident. The last time he visited Japan was in 1980 before he became a Member of Parliament. He expressed the hope for activating exchanges with members of Parliament in Japan.

Last week, I made a courtesy call to Mr. Kris Peeters, Minister-President of Flanders at the government office building in Brussels. I was a little surprised that he guided me to the room that is used for the regional government’s weekly cabinet meetings. Mr. Peeters has already visited Japan several times and I heard a strong desire to strengthen relations with Japan. Also, I was glad that he expressed his general support for an early conclusion of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Japan. I told him that about 160 Japanese companies are operating in Flanders and asked also support for these Japanese companies. The Minister-President emphasised the importance of Flanders by pointing out that Flanders accounts for 60% of the Belgian population, 70% of the GDP and 80% of total exports.

I also visited Mr. André FLAHAUT, President of the Belgian House of Representatives together with Mr. Katsuyuki KAWAI Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Japanese House of Representatives. Mr. Flahaut has a unique career serving as a government minister during most of the time he was in office as a Member of Parliament for over 18 years. He served, in particular, as the Minister of Defence for 8 years. He nostalgically talked about a past visit to Japan when he visited the city of Nagakute (Aichi prefecture) which is the sister city of his hometown Waterloo. Both cities are famous for their historic battlefield, but I am glad that this kind of connection will lead to closer communication between both countries' politicians.
 

＜ Another International Organization in Brussels ＞

The World Customs Organization (WCO), an international organization that is not very known in Japan, is located in Brussels. Established in 1952, the WCO has a history of more than 60 years and the number of its members has increased to 179. The current Secretary General, Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, is Japanese. Given his long relevant experience at the Ministry of Finance, we may say that he is the most qualified professional in this field. About 160 international staffs are working in this organization. The goal of this organization includes the harmonization of Customs systems worldwide, the training of experts and the facilitation of Customs clearance. Various meetings are held frequently at the WCO, and from Japan, mainly Customs experts attend. The day before yesterday, I had an opportunity to talk with senior officials of this organization about several issues such as the increasing difficulty of classification of goods due to the development of new products following the progress in technology, and the importance of raising integrity of Customs officers. Many international contributions are made by the Japanese government in the field of Customs, and we try to develop human resources in developing countries, in particular, by strengthening the training programs for Customs officers. Also, we support several countries such as Vietnam, where I used to work together, providing them with large X-ray inspection equipments by means of grants. The enhancement of the Customs’ functions facilitates trade, which then contributes to the development of world economy, so I think that the WCO has a very important role to play.

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