Kazuo Koga’s 100 Visits to Dalian Marked

Kazuo Koga, president of the Ishikawa Prefecture Japan-China Friendship Association and honorary citizen of Dalian, has dedicated himself to the cause of Japan-China friendship for years and made active efforts and contribution to promoting friendly exchanges between Dalian of China and Ishikawa Prefecture and Kanazawa City of Japan.

To express its respect and gratitude to Mr. Koga, the Dalian Municipal People’s Government held an activity in celebration of Mr. Koga’s 100 visits to Dalian. Over 100 people including Zhu Chengqing, vice mayor of Dalian, Zhao Ya- ping, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Dalian Municipal People’s Congress, and Li Jianping, CPAFFC vice president, as well as Koga’s old friends in Dalian were present at the celebration.

In his speech, Vice Mayor Zhu said, for many years Mr. Koga has shuttled between Kanazawa and Dalian for the cause of friendly exchanges between Japan and China. His sincerity, selfless dedication and strong willpower have left a deep impression on us, and filled us with confidence in future exchanges and cooperation between Dalian and Kanazawa. CPAFFC Vice President Li Jianping, on behalf of the CPAFFC, conferred the “Award for Contribution to People’s Friendship” upon Kazuo Koga. In his speech of congratulation, Li mentioned that this award was set up at the Executive Committee Meeting of the CPAFFC National Council in November 2008 with the purpose of commending organizations and individuals both at home and abroad that have done outstanding work in carrying out international nongovernmental exchanges. Kazuo Koga is the first person to receive this honour. Toshio Kimoto, speaker of the Ishikawa Prefectural Assembly, and Kumiko Asaka, vice mayor of Kanazawa in charge of education, expressed their appreciation of Mr. Koga for his unremitting and long-term efforts to develop exchanges between Japan and China, and said, in future they would take Mr. Koga as a model to actively promote Japan-China friendship, particularly friendly exchanges and cooperation between Japan and Dalian.

At the celebration a short documentary reviewing the course of contacts between Mr. Koga and Dalian was shown. These familiar and touching scenes reflected again the personality of Mr. Koga, an envoy of Japan-China friendship. His sincerity and persistence touched everyone present at the celebration. Mr. Koga expressed his thanks to the leaders and friends of various circles for their encouragement and support. He said, he was gratified and warmed with the profound friendly sentiments towards him, and he would continue to do his utmost to contribute to consolidating Japan-China friendship, especially the friendly relations between Japan and Dalian.