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“Children build bridges” in Japan
The Öresund Bridge and the Japanese Seto-Ohashi bridge, 7.8 km/4.85 mi respective 9.4 km/5.84 mi long, are among the longest cable bridges in the world. The Japanese bridge links the provinces Kagawa and Okayama; and Öresund Bridge connects the Swedish province of Scania with Zeeland in Denmark. Last year, on May 24, a delegation from Öresund Bridge went to Japan to sign a “Sister bridge-agreement”, and this year a delegation from Japan came to Sweden for a reciprocal visit.
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The Mayor of Malmö Kjell Arne Landgren and Kiyoho Matsuda, the chairman for JR Shikoku open the exhibition “Children build bridges”.
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 This time delegates from Takamatsu, the capital of Kagawa, Japan visited Malmö, and together with the Mayor of Malmö, Kjell Arne Landgren, opened an exhibition “Children build bridges” in the City Hall. For the purpose of strengthening bands between the regions, the exhibition also presented the Kagawa province for inhabitants of Malmö.
Later that day, it was time to visit the beautiful former City Hall building where Kjell Arne Landgren portrayed in a very inspiring way the Danish and Swedish royal houses throughout the centuries.
The objectives of the agreement are to exchange experiences of future development of the bridges connections - as both bridges have railway and road traffic on two levels - but above all to create a cultural exchange between the regions. Therefore, the Japanese delegation, led by business adviser Kazuhiko Ogawa, not only met delegates from the Öresund Bridge Consortium in Malmö, but also opened an exhibition where they introduced the winners of a drawing contest in Japan with the theme: The Seto-Ohashi Bridge. Over three thousand drawings were created to the contest, and two happy winners, Akari Kondo, 14 and Aika Chishiro, 8 (see picture), got a travel to the Öresund region. Both girls addressed the guests in the City Hall. |
| Ms. Kimie Fujiwara addressed the farewell speech; the leader of the delegation Kazuhiko Ogawa, and Mats Bruzaeus during the farewell dinner at Kockska Restaurant. |
In the evening the Japanese delegation invited to a superb three-course dinner in the 16th century’s vault of the restaurant Kockska. The dinner was attended by the following guests: Leif Almö, Hon. Consul General of Japan in Malmö; Jacob Vestergaard, Commercial Director of Öresund Bridge Consortium; Mikael Stamming, CEO of Öresund Committee; and Education Manager Mats Bååth. When the dinner reached its end, Aika Chishiro’s grandmother held a farewell speech that was much appreciated.
| The Japanese guests pay a visit to Leif Almö and his wife Sonja. |
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The Japanese delegation also paid a visit to Consul General Leif Almö and his wife Sonja at their residence. Education Manager Mats Bååth showed the delegation his school. During the five-days-long visit, the delegation also made excursions to Scania and Zeeland.
Project coordinator for the visit was the former head of the business department in the city of Malmö, Mats Bruzaeus, who today lives and works mostly in Japan. The exhibition is one-week long.
/by Linda Almö. March 30, 2009 |
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