News

1. On July 30, Mr. Seiji Kihara, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, received a courtesy call from representative teams from Finland (Ms. Maria Ilona Parviainen and Ms. Heidi Paivinen), Mexico (Ms. Carmina Quevedo and Ms. Jaqueline Quevedo) and China (Mr. Lu Hao and Ms. Zeng Shengnan). They visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the 22 countries and regions participating in the “World Cosplay Summit 2014.”

2. Mr. Kihara stated that the Government of Japan attaches its importance to the role of Japanese soft power and cultural exchanges in its diplomacy and he expressed his hope that the representations serve as a bridge between Japan and their countries, and deepen both people-to-people and country-to-country friendship, and learn virtues of Japan during their stay.

3. Each representative stated that they were overjoyed to visit Japan. They were impressed with delicious washoku and the kindness of Japanese people, and would like to make many Japanese friends. The representatives from Finland stated that they do cosplay in order to express their love of Japanese culture such as manga and animation and they had learned various Japanese culture through manga and animation. The representatives from Mexico stated that cosplay is accepted by general Mexican citizens with favor and is regarded as a means of cross-cultural exchanges. They also stated that they would like to learn the Japanese language to a greater degree and become able to speak in Japanese. The representatives from China stated that they fully recognize the importance of exchanges with Japan through culture, including cosplay, and many of their friends also think so. They added that they learned and came to love Japanese culture such as hot springs, festivals and cherry blossoms through cosplay.