Lecture at ULB

On November 26, a lecture was held by Ambassador Shimokawa on the theme of “Japan-Belgium Relations - Past, Present and Future” at the French-language Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). An audience of approximately 80 students, most of them majoring in Japanese at the university, attended the lecture. The students listed attentively how Ambassador Shimokawa talked in his lecture about a wide variety of fields of bilateral exchange, from diplomatic history to the Imperial Household, touching upon topics such as trade, investments, sister city relations, culture, exchange programs, sports and tourism. The Ambassador said he wishes to make efforts to encourage further developments between Japan and Belgium in the field of economics and people-to-people exchanges. During the Q&A session following the lecture, there were many questions from students currently studying Japanese and who may become the future intermediaries for bilateral exchange, resulting in a lively exchange of ideas.