An afternoon reception given by the Japanese Emperor Akihito and held in the Imperial Palace in the middle of Tokyo marked the beginning of the official visit to Japan by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and current President of the European Council, Mr Janez Janša. Their talks focused on relations between the two countries and the fight against climate change.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
“It was a pleasant and interesting conversation,” said the Slovenian Premier and added that the Emperor had recalled his visit to Slovenia thirty years before. They also discussed relations between the two countries and places of interest in Slovenia that have been attracting more and more Japanese tourists in recent years. “The Emperor is very well informed about Slovenia, how it has been changing in recent years and about its present role as the country currently holding the EU Council Presidency,” said the Prime Minister.
The Emperor and the Slovenian Prime Minister and current President of the European Council, Janez Janša, also discussed relations between Japan and the European Union, emphasising in particular their joint efforts in the fight against climate change. “The Emperor is indeed a keen nature lover, interested in everything humanity is currently doing to prevent the negative effects of climate change worsening living conditions for future generations,” stressed the Premier.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
The Prime Minister took the opportunity to present the Emperor with a bronze cast of the ‘human fish’ (Proteus anguinus), which symbolises Slovenian fauna and its natural heritage and is a world zoological rarity, a species endemic to the subterranean waters of the caves of the Dinaric Karst, the only cave-adapted vertebrate in Europe and the biggest cave animal in the world. The PM also presented the Emperor with a herbarium of Froelich’s Gentian (Gentiana froelichii). This is a plant endemic to the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and the Karavanke Mountains in Slovenia.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and current President of the European Council, Mr Janez Janša, currently on an official visit to Japan which will continue until Thursday, this evening also met the presidents of the EU-Japan and Slovenia-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Groups and senior representatives of the Japanese Parliament. They discussed cooperation and further strengthening of relations between the two countries, with emphasis on the economy, in particular the automobile industry, logistics, information, food industry and tourism.
(Photo: Kristina Kosec/Bobo)
The purpose of the official visit is to strengthen political relations and economic cooperation between the Republic of Slovenia and Japan as well as to exchange views on different international issues. On his visit to Tokyo, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia is therefore being accompanied by the Minister of the Economy, Mr Andrej Vizjak, and a delegation of 27 Slovenian businessmen that will attend tomorrow’s Slovenian-Japanese automobile industry conference. In his capacity as President of the European Council, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia will, together with the President of the European Commission, Mr José Manuel Barroso, attend the 17th EU-Japan Summit.
