Yosakoi festival climaxes Japan week celebrations

This year’s Ghana-Japan festival ended on a spectacular note at the Police fitness center, behind Police headquarters Accra. Start next 60 years and beyond.

The event climaxed the 60 years of celebrations between Ghana and Japan and embraced over 6 senior High schools who performed the Yosakoi dance.

The Shishi Odori dancers gave out their maiden performance on stage. The Deer dance, as it is also called, primarily emanated from the Iwate prefecture in the Northern part of Japan and seeks to revere their ancestors. The team had earlier visited the Dowuona ancestral shrine in Osu.

Amongst the schools that performed are, St Peters Senior High School, St Paul’s Senior High school, Mary Star of the Sea school, Kasoa, St Roses Senior High school and Christ Way International School located at Old barrier.

St Paul’s Senior High school defended their title and emerged overall winners with some explicit Yosakoi dance moves and was rewarded with products and clappers by his Excellency the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana Kaoru Yoshimura.

Ghana and Japan has seen 60 years of Diplomatic relations ranging from health, sanitation, education and industrialization assistance with the theme for this year “start 60 years and beyond”.

The celebrations also embraced other events which included an International conference held at the ISSER main conference hall, University of Ghana,Legon and organized by the Center of Asian Studies.

The keynote address was read by Professor Kweku Ampiah-resource person in Japanese studies and expert in Africa-Japan relations. He spoke on the 60 years of Ghana-Japan relations and the need to focus on industrialization and modernization. Other prominent speakers included the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Kaoru Yoshimura, Professor Oduro Owusu-Vice Chancellor University of Ghana, Dr Lloyd Amoah-Ag Director-Center of Asian Studies and Provost-college of humanities-Prof.Samuel Agyei -Mensah.

A 2-day anniversary symposium of Dr Hideyo Noguchi was also held at the Noguchu Memorial Institute-University of Ghana, Legon. The symposium threw light on the exploits of the great Noguchi’s arrival in the gold Ghana and his assistance to the country in medical research. Key speakers at the event included Teizo Fujita, President Fukushima Prefecture general hygiene institute and Hiroshi Zengo, mayor of Inawashiro town, Japan.

Ghana has benefited from Japan in many areas with the latter still committed to supporting Ghana in all spheres of endeavour.

The Japan week celebration has created a woven acceptance of cultures between the two countries and has thus become a calendar of a cultural event in the country.