On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Japan's accession to UNESCO this year, our UNESCO Artist for Peace, Eijin Nimura, was invited to give a speech and perform at a celebratory event held at the House of Representatives building in Tokyo on November 30.
The event was organized by the Chiyoda UNESCO Association in Tokyo, and was attended by the Ambassador of San Marino to Japan, the Ambassador of Serbia to Japan, members of the Japanese House of Representatives, as well as the Mrs. of the late geographer François Doumenge and second-generation atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima. In his speech, Eijin Nimura congratulated Japan on the 70th anniversary of its accession to UNESCO. He paid tribute to the efforts of predecessors who established the world's first civilian organizations of UNESCO and worked together with the government and citizens to expand the UNESCO movement in Japan.
In Japan, not only the government but also the civilian power is making a huge contribution to UNESCO, so I would like to spread the significance of UNESCO to many people in Japan through music, and increase the number of people who will cooperate and contribute. (…) The solutions to the crisis we are facing today will surely be found in what UNESCO advocates, and whether we can achieve them or not depends on our minds. To create a better future, we should always keep the UNESCO Constitution in our mind with a spirit of solidarity.
In his performance, he played three pieces with the messages to pray for the repose of souls of those who sacrificed their lives to build the peace that exists today, and to hope our future would be peaceful and hopeful.
In the second half of the event, a lecture was held focusing on Yakushima Island, a natural World Heritage Site in Japan, and the agenda was expanded from eco-tourism to ocean pollution in the protection of World Heritage Sites, making the whole event a very fruitful one.
Rewatch Eijin Nimura's message for UNESCO 75th anniversary: