Sachin Kumar | The Peninsula

Japan will share the experience of hosting Olympics with Qatar, which will host the football World Cup in 2022.

The year 2020 is a special year for Japan as it will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in summer, said H E Kazuo Sunaga, Ambassador of Japan to Qatar.

“Such major sports events have wonderful unifying power, the power to bring the people around the world together, despite their differences in culture, ethnicity or whatsoever,” said H E Kazuo Sunaga, speaking at the National Day celebration held recently at The Ritz-Carlton hotel. “I hope that this spirit will carry on by the FIFA World Cup 2022, which will be hosted in Qatar. Japan is willing to share experiences in the Olympic and Paralympic Games with the Government and people of Qatar,” he said.

This year’s National Day celebration was special, since it was the first such celebration after His Majesty Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement.

H E the Ambassador said that the bilateral relations between Japan and the State of Qatar are developing steadily.

“Japan and Qatar are indispensable trade partners. In December last year Japan imported about 21 percent of Qatar’s total exports. Japan is the largest importer of the Qatari products. Without oil, gas and other products from Qatar, Japan could not maintain the current level of economy and even the current level of our life,” said H E the Ambassador. “On the other hand, many Japanese companies have been contributing to the development of Qatar. The recent examples of this are the inauguration of Doha Metro and the signing of Mega-Solar-Power Plant of Al-Kharsaah, just to name a few,” he added.

“Last year, both countries’ leaderships have agreed to advance our relations to a higher level of strategic partnership. Japan is willing to play an active role in the realization of the Qatar National Vision 2030,” he said.

He said that next year is special for Qatar and Japan because their relations mark 50th anniversary in 2021.

“Next year marks 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Japan and Qatar. As a number of events to celebrate it are upcoming, I am quite sure that our excellent relations will keep expanding to incorporate new fields of cooperation,” he said.

“Of course the economy continues to be the driving force of our relations. But I, as Ambassador of Japan, will work together with the Government and people of Qatar to expand our bilateral ties in a wide range of areas, such as security, science and technology, culture, education and sports,” he added.