Mr. Kinichi Komano, Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia
    
Mr. Kinichi Komano is the Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia. He has been in Ethiopia for about a year and three months. Before that he served in several Japanese Embassies, such as in Iran, Switzerland and Afghanistan.

The Embassy of Japan is currently organizing a "Japan Week in Ethiopia" featuring several cultural and business events.

At the commencement of the Japan Week in Ethiopia, Ambassador Komano spoke to our Senior reporter Bruck Shewareged. Excerpts:

Can you put the relationship between Ethiopia and Japan in a historical perspective?

The two countries' relationship has a long history, starting from the days of Haile-Selassie. In the 1930s, Emperor Haile-Selassie sent a group of government officials as well as intellectuals to Japan so that they could draw from Japanese experiences a development model. One intelectual a few years later wrote, a book "How Japan modernized?" It was a good book.
Then there was the second World War which caused a separation between the two countries for obvious reasons. After resuming relationship, in terms of economic development, Japan went in one direction while Ethiopia went in another direction. The relationship between the two countries had become one between donor and recipient, which continued for some decades.

Some years ago, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relationship between the two countries. On that occassion, we rehabilitated the "Japanese Garden" at the National Palace which used to exist since the days of Haile-Selassie. The garden has become attractive and accommodates two huts for tea and coffee ceremony.  

Recently, our relationship has entered a new phase. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi made it clear that Ethiopia wants to learn from the experiences of Asian countries, including Japan. We have much to share with Ethiopia.

You officially started to celebrate "Japan Week in Ethiopia" on Tuesday. Why or how, in the first place, did you come up with the idea?

As you know, Ethiopia is celebrating its millennium. It is a great occasion as it comes every thousand years. The government and people decided to use the occasion not only for celebration but also to make use of the occasion for laying a firm foundation for the future development of the country. They are also very much keen to use the occasion to change the negative image of the county to a positive and dynamic one.

The Ethiopian year started five months ago. In the middle of this year, we are keen to create another momentum. It is also another opportunity to strengthen bilateral relationship between Ethiopia and Japan.  

The event will actually go on for two weeks. The two-week event covers not only cultural and sports events but also intellectual and business events. There will be an exhibition at the National Museum displaying handicrafts developed by Japanese men and women over centuries. These include pottery artistic paperwork, weaving etc.

Like Ethiopia, Japan is rich in traditional handicrafts. We will also have two sports demonstrations and competitions. We're going to have a group of Judo experts from Japan. One of them has 8th Dan. He is one of the most skilled Judo experts. He will be leading the group. Three others accompany him. They have 6th, 5th and 3rd Dan respectively. They can show good performance at the City Hall. That's open to the public.

Ethiopian Children with disabilities are invited to have exercises with these Judo experts which I hope will give them encouragement and incentive for further practice.

On 16th March at Arat Kilo auditorium (YMCA hall) there will be a Kendo Competition. Kendo is traditional Japanese fencing while Judo is Japanese traditional wresting.

There is one Japanese lady, a volunteer, in Addis Ababa, who happens to be a Kendo expert with 5th Dan. Last year, she opened a Kendo class, teaching about 100 Ethiopian children. They have reached a level where they can compete.

Your embassy conducted studies on industries with high export potential in Ethiopia. What are their findings?

Ethiopia has become a very strong destination of foreign investors. There is so much foreign investment in the country. Frankly speaking, Japanese investors are very slow in coming to Ethiopia. My colleagues and I have been discussing how we can promote investment from Japan to Ethiopia.

One of the conclusions we reached is that because of the great geographical distance between the two countries, Japanese investors are not aware of what's happening in Ethiopian in terms of economic and business development in Ethiopia.

Therefore we have decided to undertake research on four Ethiopian industries with high export potential, namely floriculture, tourism, leather and handicraft industries. The report could be used by Japanese investors as a valuable source of information for Japanese investors. They can discover the potentials in Ethiopia for their future investment.

Through this research work, Japanese Overseas Development Agency (ODA) through JICA could make a contribution.

In terms of quality of products, there is much room for further improvement. Apart from this, a question of packaging is a common problem in almost all industries. Even though the quality of the product is good, unless you have good packaging, you can't sell in European, American and Japanese markets.
The report will be released at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) office. There will be discussion on how to promote bilateral trade and investment, what Ethiopian businessmen could do and what JICA and the embassy could do.

Could geographical distance really be a problem? Chinese investors seem not to mind the distance between their country (not far from Japan) and Ethiopia? Do you also consider that the Ethiopian market is so small that it may not attract Japanese investors?

Chinese investors and companies have their own advantages. Labour cost is very minimal there. They can bring in workers from China. It is not the case with Japan. It is impossible for Japanese companies to bring Japanese workers.

But at the same time, Japanese companies have their own  advantages based on their experience.

There are new cases of investments from Japanese enterprises, albeit small ones, in areas such as coffee, cut-flowers and few others.

Some argue that Japan developed because it Westernized itself while others say it developed because it stuck to its traditional values. What is your perspective on this?

The situation is not that much simple. Overall, Japanese governments in the past 150 years tried to introduce technology from the developed world, Europe and America, while preserving the country's long tradition. To some extent, we have succeeded in doing that.

While we succeeded in preserving our tradition, we succeeded in making our society a modern one. You know, the relation between technology and tradition and value system is very much complicated. Japan is one of the countries where tradition and industrialization have gone in tandem.

You have TICAD IV and G8 summit ahead of you. What will be your main agenda in terms of helping Africa?

We are going to hold these two international conferences, TICAD IV in May in Yokohama, and in July the G8 meeting in Hokaido. On these two occassions, Japan is going to pursue a very clear objective to work together with African leaders and people for consolidating the dynamisms now emerging in Africa. The dynamisms are in all aspects, i.e politicall, social and economic. By these dynamisms emerging throughout Africa are still fragile. The recent case of violence in Kenya shows us that dynamism, democracy, peace and security, and development are very much in a fragile state. In order to consolidate these dynamisms in Africa, we will strengthen our cooperation with Africa.

Of course, the main responsibility lies in the hands of African leaders and the people. But they still require assistance from the international community so that Africa can come out from the donor trap.

How much support do you actually give to Africa countries?

I'm not in a position to give you a clear figure of Japanese contribution to Africa. But development in Africa is one of the major topics in the G8 summit to be deliberated. In order to stimulate these deliberations, the government of Japan is planning to make its contribution, by announcing aid programmes in terms of peace and security in Africa, global climate change issues and others. There might be an announcement for Japanese support for infrastructure development in Africa.