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On 25 February 2020, His Excellency Mr Munenaga Kensaku, Ambassador Designate of Japan to the Kingdom of Tonga hosted a reception to mark and honour of the 61st Birthday of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Naruhito of Japan.<\/p>\n On 25 February 2020, His Excellency Mr Munenaga Kensaku, Ambassador Designate of Japan to the Kingdom of Tonga hosted a reception to mark and honour of the 61st Birthday of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Naruhito of Japan.<\/p>\n
His Royal Highness Prince Ata of Tonga graced the occasion as the Guest of Honour.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tonga, Honourable Rev. Dr. Pohiva Tu\u2018i\u2018onetoa attended the reception<\/span> along with Cabinet Ministers, Lord Fakafanua, Speaker of the Kingdom of Tonga\u2019s Legislative Assembly and Lady Fakafanua, Lord Tevita Tupou and Lady Tupou, and Heads of Diplomatic Missions.<\/p>\n Also present were Lord Vaea and Nobles of the Realm, Hon. Lord Chief Justice Michael Whitten, Police Commissioner, Attorney General, People\u2019s Representatives to the Legislative Assembly, Honorary Consuls, International Organizations Representatives, Government Executive Officials, Public and Private Business General Managers, Japan related alumni representatives and many other guests.<\/p>\n In addressing the occasion the Japanese Ambassador designate surprised his guests by welcoming them partially in Tongan language. He said, \u201cOku ou fiefia \u2018aupito \u2018i ho\u2019omou me\u2019a mai ki he talitali fakapule\u2019anga ko \u2018eni, \u2018o e \u2018aho fakahifo \u2018a \u2018ene \u2018Afio, \u2018Emipola \u2018o Siapani. Ko ho\u2019omou me\u2019a mai ko e fakamo\u2019oni ia \u2018o e mafana mo e loloto e va \u2018a hotau ongo fonua \u2018i he tapa kotoa pe.\u201d<\/em> ( \u201cI really appreciate your attendance in our national day reception to celebrate the Japanese Emperor\u2019s Birthday. Your presence in this evening is proof of the solid nexus between our countries in every level.)<\/p>\n The Kingdom of Tonga and Japan share many similarities and Ambassador \u00a0Munenaga stated that, \u201cLike Tonga, Japan also faces various natural disasters every year. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and I\u2019d like to express our deepest thanks to the disaster relief fund from Tonga to Japan at that time, which symbolized the true friendship and mutual assistance.\u201d He emphasized that based on many experiences, both countries have acquired resilience against disasters and can exchange insights, knowledge and effective measures on disaster prevention and management, which will be valuable for both of them.<\/p>\n Japan commits to ongoing projects for the Kingdom of Tonga with the current Introduction of Nationwide Early Warning System, or NEWS Project, and new rounds of the Non-Project Grant Aid or NPGA for the provision of equipment for practical disaster management, as well as medical equipment to combat disruptions caused by COVID-19 arriving next month to the Kingdom of Tonga.<\/p>\n Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Pohiva Tu\u2018i\u2018onetoa in his keynote address extended best wishes to His Imperial Majesty Emperor Naruhito on the occasion of his 61st Birthday. \u201c May His Imperial Majesty the Emperor continue to enjoy good health, prosperity and profound happiness.\u201d He continued to state that the occasion \u201creiterates our Government-to-Government commitments to each other having achieved 50 years of diplomatic relations. We have a strong bond that continues to grow from strength to strength. The Kingdom of Tonga \u2013 Japan relations is based on the positive foundation of our people to people exchanges. It is a unique partnership that we have all enjoyed and mutually respect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTonga appreciates all the assistance from Japan including the assistance to enhance the disaster warning and response systems and to support disaster recovery and resilience,\u201d stated Prime Minister Tu\u2019i\u2019onetoa.<\/p>\n The addresses were followed by the toasts, to honour His Majesty Emperor Naruhito, and for the prosperity of both the Kingdom of Tonga and Japan. The guests were invited to enjoy Japanese cuisines cooked by the Ambassador\u2019s chef, using the Kingdom of Tongan ingredients, with a selection of Japanese sake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 25 February 2020, His Excellency Mr Munenaga Kensaku, Ambassador Designate of Japan to the Kingdom of Tonga hosted a reception to mark and honour of the 61st Birthday of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Naruhito of Japan. His Royal Highness Prince Ata of Tonga graced the occasion as the Guest of Honour. The Prime Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"image_01":2564,"image_02":"","image_03":"","image_04":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tonga-gov.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}