Brazilian tourism promoted to Japanese
All Japanese tourists who visit Brazil in 2008 will receive a certificate to commemorate 100 years of Japanese immigration into the Latin American country.
In celebration of this landmark, 2008 has been earmarked as the official Japanese-Brazilian exchange year, in preparation for which the Japanese ministry of finance will issue commemorative coins in November 2007.
Strong ties between the two countries were cemented in May 2005 when President Lula visited Japan the first Brazilian presidential visit to the country in a decade.
The Japanese ambassador for Brazil, Takahiko Horimura, acknowledged the significance of this visit for the two nations: "The existence of Japanese-Brazilians is a tremendous asset to the betterment of both countries’ relations."
Mr Horumura said that he believed that Japan and Brazil’s deepening relationship would produce "immeasurable fruits" for the future.
According to Japanese website asahi.com, 43,000 Japanese tourists visited Brazil in 2002. Following high profile communications between the two nations this figure rose in 2006 to 75,000.
There are over 1.4 million citizens of Japanese descendent who live in Brazil, representing the biggest community of Japanese descents in the world, outside the country itself.
