The Diplomat
The Ambassador of Japan in Spain, Kenji Hiramatsu, has imposed the Order of the Rising Sun on the President of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, during a working visit to this autonomous community to promote cooperation in tourism, education and economic matters.
The ceremony of the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays with Hanging Ribbon, took place this past Monday at the Pazo de Raxoi, headquarters of the Galician Presidency, in Santiago de Compostela. “This decoration is awarded on the occasion of his great contribution to the promotion of interregional exchange and mutual understanding between Japan and Spain,” the Embassy said in a press release.
The Order of the Rising Sun is awarded to both Japanese citizens and foreigners who have made outstanding achievements in their professional activity in favor of social or cultural improvements, in the strengthening of Japan’s international relations or in the promotion of Japanese culture. Last November 3, the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan made public the list of foreign honorees for autumn 2021, which included the names of Feijoó and the mayor of Málaga, Francisco de la Torre. The announcement coincided with an earlier working visit by the ambassador to Galicia.
According to the Xunta, Feijóo took advantage of his meeting with the ambassador to convey “Galicia’s interest in strengthening the relationship with Japan, through new tourism, educational and economic projects” and assured that the Asian country occupies “a preferential place within the Galician strategy of external action”.
As an example of this, he recalled that in 1998 the then President Manuel Fraga took the first steps to establish the twinning between Galicia and the Prefecture of Wakayama, on which the pilgrimage route Camino Kumano (the “Japanese Way of St. James”) depends, twinned with the Jacobean since 1998 and which, like the Galician one, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and highlighted the agreement signed in 2015 with the governor of Kagawa to twin the Xacobean Route with the Shikoku-Henro Way (which runs through 88 Buddhist temples on the island of Shikoku). He also recalled that this month talks have begun with Japanese authorities to twin the Way of St. James with the Kannon Way, the oldest religious route in the country, declared Cultural Heritage of Japan.
In addition to boosting tourism in both directions -since 2009, the number of Japanese pilgrims almost tripled, to over 1. 450 compostelas, the document that certifies that the Camino de Santiago has been completed-, the president of the Xunta emphasized the promotion of relations in the educational, cultural and economic fields and his desire to extend the collaboration “to other areas, such as the scientific-technical, joining knowledge in, for example, oceanography, improving the marketing of agricultural, fishing or food products, automotive or shipbuilding industry”. In the economic field, Feijóo reiterated the commitment of the Galician Executive to attract investment to the Community, as is the case with the company Showa Denko, which has just announced its interest in creating in A Coruña a new graphite plant for electric car batteries, in addition to the existing one for the manufacture of artificial graphite for production processes.
