Pijar, Medan. A lot of problems remain unresolved in different parts of the world. However, we hope that leaders of the nations are able to provide solution in the future, one of which is by building up diplomacy between countries for peace.

This is as stated by the Minister Director of the Center for Information and Culture (Public Diplomacy) of Japan to Indonesia, Ryo Nakamura, on his speech in front of students and lecturers of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. The event was held on Monday (31/7) in the FISIP Meeting Room.

The coming of this team is not only for giving a speech on “Japan and Indonesia: Invaluable Partners in an Uncertain World”, but also for exposing on how the systems in several sectors work in Japan. For this reason, it is expected that the more knowledge the outside community has, the better their understanding of the needs of each country involved in the cooperation will be.

The problem is that, according to Ryo, the path to diplomacy seriously affects the relationships between countries, including Indonesia and Japan that have established relationship for sixty years and in constant improvement as evidenced from a number of international activities held by both countries.

“The relationship between Japan and Indonesia has been established since the days of the Dutch East Indies, and it continued to be an intensive consolidation and later became partners in bringing strategic ideas for the prospective development in Indonesia and Japan,” he said.

In his speech, he also added that a lot of Indonesian citizens live in Japan whether to pursue their education, to work or to build a career as well as to introduce Indonesia in Japan. Moreover, the position of nurses in the hospitals is filled by workers of non-Japanese citizens.

It does not rule out the possibility that with the diverse foreigners living in Japan, such as from Indonesia, will widen the horizons and knowledge of Japanese people about those countries.

“In Japan, the Indonesian Embassy seeks to promote Indonesia’s richness such as culture, social life, entertainment, food and how to speak the local languages that exist in Indonesia,” added Ryo who occasionally used Bahasa Indonesia.

The unique thing is that, the cooperation between Indonesia and Japan has resulted in a strong sense of tolerance in diversity, as can be seen in Japan where a lot of halal certified foods are widely served. Therefore, Indonesians in Japan no longer find it difficult to meet their basic needs of every-day life such as food.

It is noteworthy that, in the Indonesia-Japan relationship, there are three elements that form the rationale including political stability, prosperity of the people and cooperation and involvement. Meanwhile, the Japanese Embassy will add another point of cooperation with Indonesia to deal with cases related to the current cases on theft and measures that need to be taken to fight against terrorists.

At the end of his public lecture, the Japanese Consulate General explained some required documents to assist students in pursuing their study and engaged in student exchange programs to Japan. This was cordially welcomed by USU delegated by the Vice Dean I of FISIP Husni Thamrin, S.Sos, MSP.

On this occasion, the academic society of FISIP, especially the students, were actively engaged in the discussion forum during a direct question and answer session with the Japanese Consulate General. Certainly, this event would not be as successful without the role of the moderator Dinda Nazlia Nasution who is also the student of FISIP and who is once crowned as the most outstanding student of USU for the year of 2017. (RGA/Pijar/rds)