Japan envoy graces Overseas Memorial Service at Manila Bay

Japanese Ambassador Endo Kazuya participated in a memorial service and reception aboard a ship in Manila Bay last Thursday as part of the “Bereaved Children of the War Dead Memorial Friendship Project.”

The project, which visits war memorials for remembrance and mourning and engages with local institutions to foster friendship, marked its 35th anniversary and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II this year with an overseas memorial service at sea.

The ship departed Kobe, Japan, on 1 June, conducting services in the East China Sea before arriving in Manila Bay.

A memorial service for all war victims was held onboard the ship. Following an address by Mizuochi Toshisada, chairperson of the Japan Bereaved Families Association, Ambassador Endo delivered a commemorative speech.

A reception onboard included representatives from the Philippines Department of Tourism, the Philippine Red Cross and a children’s facility from Manila. Children from the facility enjoyed a chorale performance by participants in the memorial service, which included descendants of war victims in their 90s and their younger family members.

Wheelchairs and school supplies, collected by bereaved family members and including origami cranes and personal messages, were also donated.

The ship departed Manila on Thursday evening to continue its memorial voyage across the Pacific Ocean, with a scheduled return to Kobe Port on 11 June.

In a separate event, Minister Yokota Naobumi, Minister for Economic Affairs of the Embassy of Japan, joined a send-off ceremony on Tuesday for the 17th batch of Filipino nurses and certified care workers bound for Japan. The ceremony was organized by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).

Yokota conveyed his well wishes to the 218 candidates — 19 nurses and 199 care workers — alongside DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac, Assistant Secretary Levinson C. Alcantara and director Rosemarie G. Duquez, as well as director Suzuki Ben of the Japan Foundation, Manila.

The candidates were hired through a government-to-government arrangement facilitated by the DMW and the Japan International Corporation of Welfare Services, as part of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement signed in 2006. Since the program’s inception in 2009, over 4,000 Filipino nurses and certified care workers have participated.

The 17th batch is scheduled to depart for Japan this month after completing six months of preparatory Japanese language training in the Philippines.

Upon arrival, they will undergo an additional six months of intensive language training, provided free of charge with daily living allowances, before being assigned to Japanese hospitals and caregiving facilities. They will then receive further training to obtain Japanese national licenses in their respective fields.