Although it is a remote area that takes more than a full day by air, the three South American countries have a strong pro-Japanese sentiment due to the history of immigration since the Meiji era. It is necessary to build a good partnership with shared values and further support.
JICA Chair Lecture at La Plata University, Argentina (provided by JICA, hereinafter the same)
In November 2022, I went to three South American countries: Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia.
It was my first time in Chile. Like many Japanese, I first learned about Chile during the 1960 Chile earthquake and tsunami. It was a great surprise to me that an earthquake in a country on the other side of the Pacific would cause damage to Japan. After that, in 1987, when I participated in an international conference on the Asia-Pacific held in Sabah, Malaysia, there were people from Chile and Peru, and I thought, oh, the other side of the Pacific is also a neighboring country.
