The Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Cornelia Pieper, today (16 October) issued the following statement during the opening event of the series entitled “150 Years of Friendship between Germany and Japan” at the German School Tokyo Yokohama:

”One hundred and fifty years of German-Japanese relations are a success story we must enhance. Japan and Germany are a community of shared values.The German Government will do all it can to ensure that any remaining obstacles in Japan in the way of trade with Germany and Europe are removed.

We must also step up our activities in the education and academic sector.Greater efforts must above all be undertaken in the learning of German and in the exchange of students between German and Japanese universities.I’d like more Japanese to visit Germany and vice versa.“