• A large number of people attended a lecture by Ambassador Iwai Fumio talking about “Meiji Restoration” at the Literary Club in Riyadh.

Malak Alzahrani

Riyadh: Japan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Iwai Fumio gave a lecture at Riyadh’s Literary Club about “Japan’s experience during the Meiji Restorations and Modernization” in Arabic.

The event was hosted on May 24 by Abdulrahman AlJasser, a member of the Literary Court Council in Riyadh. 

The lecture started off with a few words from Japan’s embassy’s second secretary and head of cultural section, Nonaka Akiko. 

She presented a video about Japan beginning with the geographical location, then broadcasting the national anthem of Japan. 

Iwai talked about the 1868 political reforms and how it was a revolutionary change in Japanese history. The “great general” Tokugawa Shogun who ruled Japan in the feudal (samurai) period, lost his power and then took the name Meiji (enlightened rule) as his reign name that resulted to the event name known as the Meiji Restoration.

The uprising resulted in abolishing the ruling class of samurai within eight years from the restoration, declaration of the constitution, adaptation of a parliamentary and education system, building railroads, installing telegraph lines, and establishing strong army and navy forces. By that, Japan underwent rapid industrialization.

The Meiji Restoration transformed Japan. The government became centralized around the figure of the emperor, and the political system allowed people to pursue new opportunities. 

Iwai also talked about the Iwakura mission, which was a Japanese diplomatic voyage to the United States and Europe, conducted between 1871 and 1873 by leading statesmen and scholars of the Meiji period. 

He also talked in depth about the Shokusan-kogyo, or encouragement of new industries, policy in which the Meiji government accelerated modernization of the nation by encouraging industry to compete with western countries. 

“The reason why I held this event is because I wanted the many people of Saudi Arabia to deeply know about my country Japan,” Iwai told Arab News Japan.

The attendees covered a third of the venue, variating from people who are interested in the Japanese culture to Japanese language majored students or graduates from both Saudi Arabian and Japanese universities.

“We the literary club are pleased tonight to host one of Japan embassy’s event. It was an ancient historical lecture, presented by his excellency the ambassador of Japan in Saudi Arabia. It was a conversation rooted in history,” AlJasser said. 

One of the attendees, a Japanese language student at King Saud University, Ziyad AlFaryan told Arab News: “It was very interesting. I have been waiting for an event like this.”