We will post the greetings of Chairman Akashi.
We would like to thank the many members, including Vice Mayor Yukiko Kawawada, Vice Chairman Hirotoshi Toyoda, and Kazue Suzuki City Council, for their attendance today. It is very significant that the international goodwill activities and international understanding activities that we have been working on with our members, which has been 23 years since the establishment of this association, are bearing fruit.
We also would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you for your support in coming to this point.
By the way, as an aid to the international understanding of the citizens and the deepening of friendship between the countries, this year we will continue to hold homestay projects for international students and JICA trainees from neighboring universities, as well as friendships with foreign residents. We will actively carry out various activities to deepen it.
In March of this year, we dispatched 10 middle and high school students to New Zealand for the 18th time. The connection between the two cities has evolved into a mutual exchange between citizens at the citizen level and the government, and the Wairoa project, which had been suspended since 2009 after the Great East Japan Earthquake, has been resumed for the first time in seven years. 26 Wairoa citizens visited our city for 11 days from the end of September.
So far, a total of 180 Wairoa citizens have visited Kitaibaraki. This time, a safety prayer ceremony for the new building based on the Maori traditional ceremony was held, and they visited the mayor. Also with the Wairo Ahaka team, we were able to further deepen mutual understanding between students at Sekimoto Elementary and Junior High School and Isohara Kyoei High School.
Finally, KICS will strive for further international mutual understanding based on new ideas this year as well. We look forward to your continued cooperation and understanding in the future.
