On Friday, March 18, 2022, Dr. Ritter Diaz, Representative Director of JAPOLAC hosted a farewell dinner for H.E. Jaime Barberis, Ambassador of Ecuador, and wife on the occasion of the end of his mission in Japan.

Dr. Diaz expressed his gratitude to Ambassador Barberis for the strong support for the objectives and activities of JAPOLAC since its foundation. The Embassy of Ecuador was one of the first embassies of Latin America and the Caribbean to join JAPOLAC as honorary member.

The dinner also counted on the participation of H.E. Raul Florentin, Ambassador of Paraguay, and wife as well as other distinguished Japanese guests.

On March 5, 2022, Dr. Ritter Diaz, Representative Director of JAPOLAC participated at the painting exhibition “Colors, Ink & Friends”, which took place at Shinmei Iki Iki Plaza in Minato-Ku.

The exhibition included paintings from Mrs. Maria Liz Aquino, wife of the Ambassador of Paraguay, Mrs. Maria Amparo Aviles, wife of the Ambassador of Ecuador, Ms. Carolina Barberis, daughter of the Ambassador of Ecuador, Mrs. Maria Fernanda Lochschmidt, Art Historian from Brazil and Mrs. Clara Nakazato, a national from Venezuela and a long-term resident in Japan.

Under the tutoring of Maria Liz Aquino, these group of ladies met regularly during the pandemic and endeavored to showcase the creativity in art as a way to cope with the special times we are living in.

Their works mingled different techniques and materials freely such as acrylic, pastel, pencil, Japanese sumi, applied over surfaces as canvas, papers, cardboard, washi paper, or as combined materials in collage formats.

The results were very diverse, going from lively colorful works to peaceful monochrome ones. They reflected the different backgrounds, learnings and influences received from each other.

The exhibition was held to commemorate International Woman’s Day and was supported by the Embassy of Ecuador in collaboration with Minato-Ku’s Shinmei Iki Iki Plaza.

The closing ceremony of the second short online program between Chiba University and the Panama Technological University was held on March 4, 2022.

The short online program is part of JAPOLAC’s Program for University Internationalization, which seeks to introduce practical and distinctive knowledge of Latin American and Caribbean countries (LAC) to Japanese university students, encouraging them to visit and study in the LAC region.

The three-week short-summer online program included courses such as a brief history of Panama and its Canal, Panama as Logistic Hub, and Forest Engineer in the Central American Tropics.

Japanese students did not only learn practical knowledge about Panama, but also were able to put in practice their international communication skills as all courses were taught in English language.

The closing ceremony included the participation H.E. Hideo Fukushima, Ambassador of Japan to Panama, the President of Panama Technological University, Mr. Hector Montemayor, and the Vice-President for Education and International Affairs of the University of Chiba, Mr. Makoto Watanabe. It also counted on the honorable presence of Ms. Margelia Palacios, Director of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Panama.

The Director Representative of JAPOLAC, Dr. Ritter Diaz, expressed his gratitude to Chiba University and Panama Technological University for their continuous academic cooperation to further increase knowledge and connection between students of Japan and Panama.

JAPOLAC aims at promoting practical educational exchanges between Japan and LAC as well as connecting universities with productive forces of society to better prepare students for a changing labor market.

Dr. Ritter Diaz, Representative Director of JAPOLAC participated in the inauguration of the Photographic Exhibition “Dimension of Devotion – Images of the Oruro Carnival”, from the Bolivian photographer Marcelo Chacon Aracena.
The Oruro Carnival is a religious and cultural festival held in Oruro, Bolivia, and it is a blend of belief from Andean deities and Christianity. It is dedicated to the Virgin of Candelaria or Virgin of the Mineshaft. The carnival is one of UNESCO’s Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
During the festival, over 40 groups of folk dancers perform 18 different dances, which showcase the multicultural nature of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

The exhibition was organized by the Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on February 25, 2022, at the Latin American Hall of Kowa Building No. 38 in Tokyo. On this occasion, the Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia also presented a musical and dance performance reflecting the cultural tradition of the carnival.