在ヒューストン日本国総領事館

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you to my residence here tonight.

My name is Tsutomu Osawa, and I assumed the post of Consul-General of Japan at Houston in September, 2007. Since then, I have worked together with various organizations including the Japan-America societies to further promote Japan-U.S. friendship by organizing various Japan-related events.

Now, I would like to talk about current Japan-U.S. relations. Frankly speaking, things are great, as exemplified by the fact that Prime Minister Aso was the first foreign leader invited to the White House by the Obama Administration and that Tokyo was Secretary of State Clinton’s first stop in her trip to Asia. However, we should not be satisfied with resting on our laurels. We should continue to strive for even better relations.

In this regard, I truly think that this annual meeting of NAJAS, in which participants share best practices with other Japan-America societies and work together to create new and better ideas for the future of Japan-U.S. relations, is extremely important and constructive. Also, I’m elated that such a remarkable meeting is now being held in Houston.

In January of this year, there was a meeting of the Japanese ambassador, consuls-general, honorary consuls-general and Japanese-American leaders in WashingtonDC. In this meeting, it was discussed how to further strengthen Japan-U.S. exchange throughout the U.S., and one of the things we agreed is that we should reinforce our support to Japan-America societies all over the U.S.. I assume you are working closely with the Japanese embassy and consulates, and I take this opportunity to thank you for the cooperation extended to us and would like to ask for your continued support. Of course, we are more than happy to help you. So, please feel free to contact us at any time.

I would like to thank you all once again for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us this evening.  Although it is hot and humid, I wish everybody a wonderful stay in Houston, Texas.

Thank you very much.