Ambassador of Japan Sugiyama Akira presented a collection of books on politics, economics, history, culture, literature and arts from the Nippon Foundation to Professor M.M.M Najim, Vice Chancellor of South Eastern University in the presence of M. M.M Rifaudeen, Librarian of the university on 28th September 2020.

An advocate of international peace, the Nippon Foundation is the foremost public welfare and philanthropic organization in Japan to promote Japanese language, spread cultural awareness and understanding of customs essential to coexist in harmony.

The South Eastern University is the third recipient in Sri Lanka to receive the books donated from the Nippon Foundation. Its “READ JAPAN PROJECT”, a global project commenced in 2008 to elicit a profound understanding of contemporary Japan through knowledge dissemination, has gifted over 65,000 books to 1,011 libraries in 136 countries and regions so far. The Embassy expects that this programme will uplift the interest of students in Japan and inspire them to pursue higher education in Japan from this reputed institution of Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Sugiyama in his remarks expressed his desire to further cultivate untapped potential of scholarly interactions with prestigious South Eastern University and hoped that the books would symbolize “rising hope” for the next generation, like the emblem of “rising sun” used in the South Eastern University.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Najim while expressing heartfelt appreciation for the books reiterated that this is a stepping stone to further strengthen the links established by academic staff who have studied in Japan while reaffirming that this donation will sprout manifold opportunities to better acquaint prospective students with the cultural diversity to accelerate academic exchanges between the two countries.

The event’s proceedings were closed by a guided tour of the university library where Ambassador Sugiyama viewed a specially arranged exhibition of the Japan-related books of the library.