Director General Invited by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia
Director General KAMEI Nobuo, accompanied by YAMAUCHI Kazuya, Head of the Regional Environment Section of the Japan Center for International Cooperation in Conservation and HIRAIDE Hidefumi, Chief of General Affairs of the Department of Research Support and Promotion, was invited and visited the Republic of Armenia from May 25 to June 2 at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture. This invitation was in response to a project by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan that invited Arev Samuelyan, Deputy Minister of Culture to Japan last year to inform her of the current state of safeguarding of Japan’s cultural properties. A networking core center project of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan had conducted workshops on the conservation of bronze objects since 2011. With the conclusion of these workshops, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia and the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo signed an Agreement for Cooperation in the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage for the next 5 years. The Japanese representatives also attended the workshop’s closing ceremony and an opening ceremony for an exhibit of items that had been conserved.
The signing ceremony for the new memorandum of agreement took place at the Ministry of Culture and the opening ceremony for the exhibit took place at the History Museum on the 26th. Addressing numerous members of the press, Deputy Minister Samuelyan expressed appreciation and thanks for Japan’s cooperation in training Armenian personnel. On the 27th, KAMEI delivered a lecture entitled “The current state of and issues with safeguarding Japan’s cultural properties.” In this lecture, he explained the necessity of fostering personnel to pass on techniques and providing materials and tools needed to safeguard various cultural properties. KAMEI also emphasized that he had the sense of an impending crisis regarding the safeguarding cultural properties in Japan, given its shrinking society. The Japanese representatives visited Armenia’s foremost monasteries, convents and churches along with museum conservation facilities from 28th. Through the on-site visit, the Japanese representatives experienced Armenia’s wonderful culture while they realized the necessity of further technical exchanges between Japan and Armenia.