At the end of this past January, nine APIC Scholarship Students from the Pacific Island region and Caribbean who are currently studying at Sophia University (six undergraduates and three graduate students) spent three days of their spring break visiting Hiroshima as part of their training program. I accompanied them for a short duration of their trip.

The trip provided a meaningful way for the students to understand the diverse aspects of Japan by learning through personal experience. The trip included indulging in local okonomiyaki, taking the Shinakensen, visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Hiroshima Museum of Art, which houses an impressive collection of Impressionist paintings by artists such as Renoir and Monet, and Miyajima Island, the Mazda Museum, as well as to Sanken Sangyo Co., Ltd., a specialized industrial furnace manufacturer with operations overseas. The students showed keen interest during the Mazda manufacturing line as well as when listening to explanations of various eco-friendly measures being implemented. Going forward, I hope to continue providing APIC scholarship students with opportunities to gain firsthand insights into Japan’s industries and industrial capabilities.

This study trip was made possible by support provided by the Komori Foundation. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the Foundation. I would also like to thank Mr. Takashi Mandai, my former high school classmate and current Senior Advisor at Sanken Sangyo Co., Ltd for his generous assistance in arranging our visit to the company.

――◦――

The November 2025 G20 Summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. However, unfortunately due to tensions between President Trump and South Africa, President Trump boycotted the meeting and declined to send a representative, thus forcing the ceremonial handing over of the presidency to be cancelled. The United States has also announced that South Africa will not be invited to participate in the 2026 G20 Summit.

However, while watching the G20 summit take place in South Africa, I realized that the Summit’s logo design featured the flower King Protea. King Protea is a large plant with bright flowers, which thrives in rocky soil. Pressed King Protea flowers are also quite beautiful. Images of the flower sent me back in time to the days when I was assigned to South Africa, reminiscing about the plethora of eye-catching flora that I observed while living in the country. Other stunning flowers in South Africa include the Strelitzia, otherwise known as the Bird of Paradise flower, the purple Jacaranda flower, and the Butterfly Gaula, which is quite lovely to watch as it sways gently in the wind.

South Africa is truly blessed with an extraordinary variety of beautiful flowers.