Press Release 2015
Ambassador of Japan visits Kumon Center for Mathematics
Ambassador of Japan Mr. Shingo Tsuda visited the KUMON Center on Wednesday December 2, 2015. During the visit, Ambassador Tsuda was briefed about the famous Kumon method for teaching mathematics by Mr. Shinji Nagano, regional manager of Kumon center as well as Ms. Hana, Doha Branch manager, which was opened since 2009 for children aged 4 to 17 years old.
Kumon is a learning method that was born in Japan from a father who wanted his son to develop a love for learning in 1954. Today Kumon has helped millions of children in 49 countries and regions around the world. This unique method aims to maximize the potential of each individual through learning and it is available for all ages. While it started as a method for learning mathematics in particular, gradually it grew into a comprehensive method to improve basics of education including writing, reading, and arithmetic.
Entry into Force of the Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the State of Qatar for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income
On November 30, 2015, the diplomatic notes was exchanged in Doha, the State of Qatar between the Embassy of Japan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar (Department of Asian Affairs) for “the Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the State of Qatar for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income” (signed on February 20, 2015) in order to enter into force.
The Agreement will come in effect on December 30, 2015 (the thirtieth day after the date of exchange of diplomatic notes).
The notes were exchange between Mr. Shingo Tsuda, Ambassador of Japan to the State of Qatar and H.E. Mr. Khalid Ibrahim Abdulrahman Al-Hamar, Director of the Asian Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Ministry.
Japanese & Qatari Culture celebrated at Junko Sushi Restaurant
The Embassy of Japan in Qatar in cooperation with “Junko Sushi & Japanese Dining” Restaurant held the cultural event “Japan week” from November 10 to 12, to celebrate the growing cultural exchange between Japan and Qatar. The three days event featured daily soba –Japanese noodle- making events, showcasing of traditional crafts and products of Nishimeya village located at the heart of the UNESCO Natural World Heritage site of Shirakami Mountains, known for its verdant fertile lands and fresh water. The main event was the cutting of a huge Tuna fish in the traditional Japanese style. The event also witnessed a celebration of the cultural convergence between Japan and Qatar through showcasing of Kimono and an exclusive Abaya fashion tailored from kimono textile with Japanese patterns especially for the event.
Touching upon the deep bilateral relations between Japan and Qatar, H.E. Mr. Shingo Tsuda, Ambassador of Japan said in his opening remarks “Japanese cuisine has been attracting the world’s attention for a long time, and Qatar is not different. Japanese food, so called “Washoku” has been inscribed on the UNESCO list as intangible Cultural Heritage in December 2013. I am very glad to see more and more people in Qatar experiencing Japanese food”
He also talked about Junko restaurant in the Pearl, “as you may know, “Junko” came from Mrs. Junko Nanri, who has been running this authentic Japanese restaurant in Doha since 2012, including the preparation period to set up this restaurant at the best location in the Pearl Island. She has been awarded “letter of appreciation” from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Mr. Fumio Kishida, for her significant contribution to the promotion of Japanese culture in Qatar.
Many dignitaries were present at the opening of the event including their Excellencies the Ambassadors of Kenya, Singapore, Pakistan, Bulgaria and Korea. The event attracted many Qatari & Foreign residents who were extremely content with the quality and taste of the Japanese dishes and sweets presented at the event, and had a good time taking pictures while trying out the kimono and the Japanese style Abaya.
Lecture by Japanese Professor Yuichi Hosoya, Professor of International politics at Qatar University
On the Occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, The Embassy of Japan in the State of Qatar in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences-Qatar University, are hosting a public lecture by the Japanese Professor Yuichi Hosoya, Professor of International Politics at Keio University in Tokyo, on Monday October 19, 2015 between 1-3pm at the administration building-conference hall at Qatar University.
The lecture is titled “70 Years of Japan’s Democracy –International Contribution as the state of Peace “and will be open to the public.
Professor Hosoya is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS), and Senior Fellow at The Tokyo Foundation (TKFD). He serves also as a member of the advisory board at Japan’s National Security Council (NSC), and was a member of Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security (2013-14), and a member of Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel on National Security and Defense Capabilities (2013), in which capacity he assisted to draft the document of Japan’s first National Security Strategy. His research interests include the postwar international history, British diplomatic history, Japanese foreign policy, and contemporary East Asian international security. He won several book awards such as the 23rd Suntory Prize for Social Sciences, the 24th Sakurada Prize for a Book on Political Science and the 11th Yomiuri Yoshino Sakuzo Prize. His comments appeared at New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, USA Today, Die Welt and Le Monde among others.
Birthday Reception of the Japanese Emperor
H.E. Mr. Shingo Tsuda, Ambassador of Japan, hosted a reception at his residence to celebrate the 81st birthday of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan on 3rd of December with the presence of H. E. Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Ambassador Ibrahim Fakhroo, Chief of Protocol and H.E. Mr. Ali Ahmed, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, as well as many Excellencies, Ambassadors and distinguished guests.
Ambassador Tsuda, in his welcome speech, highlighted the recent bilateral relations between the two countries which have witnessed remarkable progress during the year 2014, especially with the visit of H.H. Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser, the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, to Japan on April this year, discussing future ties with leading Japanese institutes and laying foundation for further academic and scientific cooperation.
Ambassador Tsuda also hailed the diversification of the bilateral cooperation in a variety of fields such as culture, education, health and human resources development. Ambassador also hoped that Japan and Qatar, as hosting countries for two international big events as Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and FIFA World Cup Qatar in 2022, will be able to closely cooperate in order to ensure their success as the hosting countries.
Ambassador Tsuda concluded his remarks by thanking the people and the Government of Qatar for extending their support to Japan and wished good health and happiness to H.H. the Emir and His Majesty the Emperor as well as to the friendly people of both countries.
September 28, Four Independent schools embracing new Japanese system in mathematics education
Japanese educational reformer and renowned mathematics educator at DePaul University, U.S.A, Prof. Akihiko Takahashi along with his Japanese colleagues recently visited Doha to initiate the first phase of the three-year educational project “Japanese Lesson Study Institute for Qatar leaders”, performed under the initiative of Qatar University (QU) in collaboration with QAPCO (Qatar Petro Chemical Company). Embassy of Japan in Qatar supports the efforts being made by Professor Takahashi and his team.
The main target of the Lesson Study program is to address the common issues facing mathematics education in Qatar by examining students learning in reasoning and problem solving. As a part of this program a research lesson and a post-lesson discussion, the core of Lesson Study, were demonstrated at the Japan School of Doha in early September. Qatar leaders of mathematics education experienced a live lesson observation and observed active post-lesson discussion by the Japanese teacher.
The project IMPULS, International Math-teacher Professionalization Using Lesson Study, at Tokyo Gakugei University and Qatar University’s College of Education, collaboratively propose an innovative project aimed to establish a robust organizational improvement model of professional development in Qatar schools. In turn, participating teachers will receive support in improving mathematics teaching in primary and preparatory schools. The ultimate goal of this project is to increase the number of Qatar students who are motivated to learn at a higher level of mathematics in secondary schools while developing strong skills of reasoning and problem solving.
The word Lesson Study was first used in Japan as “jugyokenkyu” in Japanese language, which translates literally as “Lesson Study”. It refers to a series of practices that Japanese teachers use to hone their craft. Typically a team of teachers first plans a lesson, then a teacher from the team teach the lesson to the students based on the lesson plan in front of an audience of other teachers and educators. Then the observers talk with the teacher about what has just taken place. Each public lesson poses a hypothesis, a new idea about how to help children learn. And each discussion offers a chance to determine whether it worked.
The project was initiated by the Project IMPLUS (http://www.impuls-tgu.org/) of Tokyo Gakugei University, aiming at enabling Qatari teachers to improve continuously through learning about lesson study, which will accordingly prepare them to create in their own countries’ systems for long-term, independent educational improvement in mathematics teaching.
QU and IMPULS held several meeting to discuss issues related to reasoning and problem solving in order to promote strong foundation of mathematics. Five content specialists and four QU faculties divided into two groups will develop and execute a program to support teachers of mathematics as well as conduct a research on how effective the training programs were with regard to enhancing the teacher’s performance and improving students’ achievements in mathematics. Next three years will cover 4 independent schools which will participate in the project as model schools.
IMPULS team will come back to Doha several times a year.
September 22, Book Donation to QIASS from the Embassy of Japan
For the second year in a row, and for the purpose of widening and deepening the horizon to further understand Japan and its culture, the Embassy of Japan in Qatar has presented Qatar International Academy for Security Studies (QIASS) with a collection of 66 books of various Japanese topics including Japanese language textbooks Japanese literature, culture and arts, dictionaries, contemporary novels, and children’s books.
The donation ceremony was held on September the 22nd at QIASS’s premises and was attended by H.E. Mr. Shingo Tsuda, Ambassador of Japan to Qatar, Mr. Martin Reardon, Senior Director of QIASS, Mr. Don Mikel, Director of Language School, Ms. Midori Mizuno, Japanese Instructor, and by many Qatari students enrolled in Japanese language majors.
June 17, Japanese Cinema Showcase
The Embassy of Japan, in cooperation with the Japanese Society in Qatar and the Japan Foundation, had hosted the Japanese Cinema Showcase at the Grand Hyatt Doha Hotel on 17th of June. In his opening remarks at the event, H.E. Mr. Shingo Tsuda, Ambassador of Japan to Qatar, called attention to the objective of the Japanese Cinema Showcase as to familiarize the spectators with the various aspects of the Japanese culture.
The Japanese Cinema Showcase screened three Japanese films which were shown for the first time in Qatar. The first film, “Brave story” (2006), was well-received by the audience, especially children and Japanese Anime lovers in Doha. The second film, “Robo-G” (2012), is a comedy story that depicts an elderly man in a robotic suit causing hilarious troubles which stimulated the audience’s loud laughter. The last film screened was “Always Sunset on Third Street 3” (2012) which describes a human drama in the nostalgia of postwar Tokyo in 1964. The three films were warmly applauded by spectators of all ages.
June 14, The 6th Qatar Japanese Speech Contest
The Embassy of Japan and the Japanese Teachers’ Association in Qatar (JALTAQ) in cooperation with the Japan School of Doha held “the 6th Qatar Japanese Speech Contest” on 14 June at the Japan School of Doha. With the audience of more than 130 including those studying Japanese language and interested in Japan, the fifteen advanced Japanese language learners in Qatar participated in the contest under three categories.
Mr. Salman Al-Khaldi was declared to be the winner of Free Topic Speech (Category C) who spoke about his trip to “Kyoto”. He won a round-trip ticket to Tokyo sponsored by Qatar Airways. In Category B where participants were assigned theme, Mr. Merwan Lomri won the first place and received a Sony smart phone sponsored by Fifty One East. As for Recitation in Category A, Ms. Mona Salama won the first place. She received a dining voucher, a courtesy from Junko Sushi.
Second and third place winners received prizes offered by Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), Junko Sushi, and JALTAQ. All the participants also received the gifts from the Japanese companies in Doha, such as Marubeni Cooperation and Taisei Cooperation. Mr. Toshio Odagiri, on behalf of the Embassy, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to all the generous sponsors for their yearly enduring support to the Japanese speech contest.
After the contest, Mr. Saad Al Kuwari, winner of the last year’s contest, made a special remarks to the Japanese language learners, encouraging them to exert more efforts in studying Japanese language. Furthermore, songs in Arabic and Japanese performed by the pupils of the Japan School of Doha added spice which impressed the audience. The contest ended with a reception where all the participants and audience could foster their friendship while enjoying the Japanese food.
March 17, The Embassy of Japan held a reception for those who visited Japan under the various Japanese governmental programs
Ambassador of Japan H.E. Mr. Shingo Tsuda hosted a reception on March 17, at his residence to those who visited Japan under the various governmental programs offered by the Japanese government.
H.E. Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts & Heritage was the guest of honour at this auspicious day.
Mr. Turki Al-Mahmoud, Assistant Director of Higher Education Institute of Supreme Education Council, attended the reception as a representative of the Qatari side and delivered a speech highlighting the excellent relations between the two nations, especially in the field of education. Ambassador Tsuda also made a speech welcoming the guests and emphasizing on the importance of enhancing the people to people exchange.
The reception was intended to create a bond among the participants in many Japanese governmental programs and to keep them relevant with Japan. Moreover, to forge a platform for wider cultural and intellectual exchange between the two nations. It’s worth mentioning that after the historic visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Qatar on August of last year, both countries have expressed their strong desire to promote cooperation in many fields such as educational and scientific areas.