The Land Of The Rising Sun. Fertile Ground For Armenians

HARUT SASUNYAN

“THE CALIFORNIA COURIER” NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER
AND EDITOR

Last month I visited Japan for the first time. In Tokyo’s Narita airport I put my foot seem to, and it seems that I was in  a surreal country, it was so good that I could not believe my eyes… The first thing that you see in Japanese is extremely courteous. Their greetings with guests is humbling and it is far more respectful than the usual shaking hands. I was surprised when they found out that they are all the same excellent service is provided at no additional charge. No one will get tips, including servers, providers, and parking.
Japan is a country of immaculate purity. You can not find a trash any accumulations of dirt in the street, even a dusty car. Even trucks transporting building materials and loading area covered by the network before leaving them in the wash to dirt sprinkle keep the city’s streets. It’s amazing that after just hitting the streets of Tokyo by storm damage, there was no garbage. In addition, Japan’s crime rate is very low, due to the lack of weapons and calm  behavior. Despite Tokyo’s sidewalks are very crowded, but each one is going to work without pushing others, arguing or shouting. Drivers respect traffic rules and drive their cars in the prescribed manner before cutting or audio signals.
Many people can be seen in the streets with masks It seems that this way they are experienced in their defense, the flu or other illness taint, but it turns out that the very nature of people are sick of the flu and they are being very careful, and do not want to transmit their bacteria to others… In addition to Japanese shrines and ancient palaces I had the opportunity to participate in events about Armenians. I was pleased to learn that the Republic of Armenia has Embassy in Tokyo. Ambassador H. Poghosyan and M. Simonyan received me politely and briefly presented their tireless efforts towards the development of friendly relations between the two countries. We discussed the Armenian community in the United States and Japan cooperation opportunities between the Embassy of Armenia in the Century of Genocide: Quite a pleasant surprise concert was organized by the Embassy of Armenia, to Aram  Khachaturian’s  110th anniversary. Three-famous musicians, pianists and a cellist Armen Babaxanyan, Julieta Vardanyan and Aram Talalyan for Armenian evening. The Japanese audience, foreign diplomats, as well as a few local students and businessmen were greatly impressed by Aram Khachaturian’s music and master musicians performing. Even I met a Japanese scientist, who spoke fluent Armenian. It was the first time I heard a Japanese accent in Armenian. My Japanese hostess organized meetings with Tokyo and Kyoto a few large companies managing directors with whom we discussed investment opportunities in Armenia. That same day I had a unique opportunity to deliver a lecture in front of a group of brilliant students and their professors. They were pretty goodin English and knew a lot of questions, even though I was told that Japanese students do not usually give issues in my speech, I covered the Armenian Genocide, Karabakh conflict, Syria’s civil war, the Arab Spring, “comfort women” issue and needing peaseful regulation of controversial conflicts. After returning to Tokyo mu hostess surprised  me, by performing of October 4, 1998 The Japan Times newspaper’s copy number, where a half-page article was published in Armenia for me, as president of the United Armenian Fund’s humanitarian work.
My last  meeting was held in a Japanese high degree of public officials with whom they discussed Japan’s relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, China, Russia and South Korea.
From recent converstaions with Japanese university students and with government leaders I realized that the nation has made a habit of all his efforts to centralize the Middle East, Europe, North and South America, completely ignoring the idea of strategically important countries in Asia.
Perhaps a more effective political and economic point of view would expand our activities in the field focussing on the countries whose citizens know almost nothing about Armenia and the Armenian people.

the material is taken from http://goo.gl/TjpjlI

translated from Armenian into English by Edith Margaryan