I am glad and privileged to celebrate the 83rd Birthday of His Majesty Emperor Akihito with my Kenyan friends, and also with counterparts from various diplomatic missions based here in Nairobi.
This is a day we remember a long and distinguished history of the Imperial House of Japan. Emperor Akihito is the 125th Emperor of Japan, in an unbroken line of succession that goes back 3,000 years.
I have been here as Ambassador of Japan in Nairobi for just six months, but within that period so many exciting things have happened.
The most honoured aspect of being Ambassador of Japan is my various meetings with His Excellency President Kenyatta.
During those moments I have been impressed with how much the President knows about Japan and its links to Kenya. He is able to list, without reference to notes, many concrete examples of Japanese funded projects all over Kenya.
To mention just a few of flagship projects that Japan has extended cooperation to, the 8,000 hectare Mwea Irrigation Scheme which accounts for 50 percent of Kenya’s rice production; the Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant which produces 30 percent of the country’s power generation; and the Mombasa Port Development Project that will go a long way towards securing Kenya’s place as the gateway to wider eastern Africa region.
Projects aside, what has most touched me are the human interactions between the Japanese and Kenyan people who have been working together side by side in order to achieve one goal.
It is a mutual trust and genuine affection that forms a basis of such interactions and describes the strong partnership between our two countries.
Japan and Kenya have engaged for many years in various spheres, including culture, economics, politics and even sports, with people-to-people relations always at the center of these links.
Such ties recently have been enhanced further by top-level interactions. In just the past two years, for instance, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Uhuru Kenyatta have met three times.
The undoubted highlight of our enduring links is Kenya’s successful hosting of the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in August.
More than 11,000 delegates, including representatives from 53 African countries and 100 executives from leading Japanese companies, were in Nairobi for the historic event.
The first ever TICAD Summit to be held outside Japan, and of course the first in Africa, was not simply a big success as Japan-initiated African development forum. It was also a success for African ownership of the event, and a mark of pride for Kenya and Kenyan people who proudly hosted the biggest international forum on African development.
It is not by accident that Kenya is the biggest beneficiary of Japanese Overseas Development Assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is an example of our trust towards Kenya, and our recognition of the country that contributes to peace and stability on the continent and is a reliable eastern gateway to Africa.
There is another aspect of Japan-Kenya relations that is often missed. Kenya is globally acknowledged as an athletics superpower, often heading the medal tables at major international events.
Japan may not be in that league, but we can be proud that substantial number of Kenya’s finest runners have sharpened their skills in Japan and became world beaters.
Deserving special mention would be Douglas Wakiihuri, the first Kenyan to win a World Athletics Championship Marathon Gold Medal, and the late Sammy Wanjiru, the first Kenyan to achieve the same feat at the Olympic Games.
This is what Japan-Kenya relations are about. It is about people working together and each contributing his or her best to a shared vision.
Mutually beneficial ties are often described as ‘win-win’ relationships. However, relations between Japan and Kenya go beyond such a trite expression. The 53 years since we established diplomatic links, for me, indicates a deeper relationship, akin to mutual trust and affections that bind close friends.
The writer is the Ambassador of Japan to Kenya